S  J~A1 


EX  LIBWS 

ROBERT  WOODS  BLISS 


DUMBARTON  OAKS 


HARVARD  UNIVERSITY 
^  Dumbarton  Oaks  Library 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORKS  OF 
WINSLOW  HOMER 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 
Getty  Research  Institute 


https://archive.org/details/lifeworksofwinslOOdown_O 


PORTRAIT  OF  WINSLOW  HOMER  AT  THE  AGE 
OF  SEVENTY-TWO 

From  a  photograph  taken  at  Front' s  Neck,  Maine,  in 
iqo8.  Photogravure 


. 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORKS 


OF 

WINSLOW  HOMER 

BY 

WILLIAM  HOWE  DOWNES 


WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 
fiibetgibe  pte00  CambriDge 
1911 


COPYRIGHT,  I9II,  BY  WILLIAM  HOWE  DOWNES 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


Published  October  iqu 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


THE  author  is  grateful  to  all  those  persons  who  have 
aided  him  in  the  preparation  of  this  biography.  To 
Winslow  Homer’s  two  brothers  he  owes  especially 
cordial  thanks.  Mr.  Charles  S.  Homer  has  been  most  kind 
in  lending  indispensable  assistance  and  most  patient  in  an¬ 
swering  questions.  Mr.  Arthur  B.  Homer  with  fortitude  has 
listened  to  the  reading  of  the  entire  manuscript,  and  has  given 
wise  and  valuable  counsel  and  criticism.  To  Mr.  Arthur  P. 
Homer  and  Mr.  Charles  Lowell  Homer  of  Boston  the  author 
is  indebted  for  many  useful  suggestions  and  interesting  remi¬ 
niscences.  Mr.  Joseph  E.  Baker,  the  friend  and  comrade  of 
Winslow  Homer  in  his  youth,  and  his  fellow-apprentice  in 
Bufford’s  lithographic  establishment  in  Boston,  from  1855  to 
1857,  has  supplied  interesting  data  which  could  have  been 
obtained  from  no  other  source.  Mr.  Walter  Rowlands,  of  the 
fine  arts  department  of  the  Boston  Public  Library,  has  made 
himself  useful  in  the  line  of  historic  research,  for  which  his 
experience  admirably  qualifies  him,  and  has  gone  over  the 
first  rough  draft  of  the  manuscript  and  offered  many  friendly 
hints  and  suggestions  for  its  betterment.  Thanks  are  due  to 
Mr.  Thomas  B,  Clarke  of  New  York,  who  has  freely  placed 
at  the  disposal  of  the  author  all  his  stores  of  information,  and 
has  liberally  offered  a  mass  of  material  for  illustrative  pur¬ 
poses.  To  Mr.  John  W.  Beatty,  director  of  fine  arts,  Carnegie 
Institute,  Pittsburgh,  warm  acknowledgments  are  made  for 
his  constant  and  generous  interest. 

Mr.  William  V.  O’Brien  of  Chicago,  Mr.  Burton  Mansfield 


VI 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


of  New  Haven,  Mr.  Ross  Turner  of  Salem,  Mr.  William  J. 
Bixbee  of  Marblehead,  Mr.  Harrison  S.  Morris  of  Philadel¬ 
phia,  Messrs.  T.  Gerrity,  Gustav  Reichard,  J.  Nilsen  Laurvik, 
Sidney  W.  Curtis,  Bernard  Devine,  and  C.  Klackner,  all  of 
New  York,  Messrs.  Doll  &  Richards  of  Boston,  Mr.  J.  W. 
Young  of  Chicago,  Mr.  ].  H.  Gest  of  the  Cincinnati  Museum 
Association,  Mr.  Bryson  Burroughs  of  the  Metropolitan  Mu¬ 
seum  of  Art,  and  the  officers  of  the  art  museums  of  Boston, 
Philadelphia,  Chicago,  Providence,  Washington,  Milwaukee, 
and  Worcester  are  also  to  be  mentioned  among  those  whose 
cooperation  has  been  of  value. 

To  the  courtesy  and  kindness  of  these  and  other  men, 
whatever  merit  the  history  of  Winslow  Homer’s  life  may 
possess  is  very  largely  due.  Without  their  help  the  difficul¬ 
ties  would  have  been  immeasurably  greater.  Only  a  year 
ago,  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  gather  sufficient  au¬ 
thentic  first-hand  information  to  construct  any  definite  and 
connected  account  of  Homer’s  life.  With  admirable  loyalty 
his  brothers  have  scrutinized  every  personal  detail  with  sole 
regard  to  what  he  would  have  been  likely  to  approve,  and 
the  family  habit  of  reserve  in  such  matters  is  strong.  The 
best  things  are  often  those  which  do  not  get  into  print.  The 
reader  has  the  privilege  of  reading  between  the  lines,  and  if 
he  chooses  to  exercise  it  here,  he  will  find  nothing  but  what 
is  creditable  and  honorable  to  Winslow  Homer. 


Boston,  March  i,  1911. 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE . 

CHAPTER  I.  The  Artist  and  the  Man. 

Winslow  Homer’s  Chief  Titles  to  Fame  —  His  Individuality  and 
Americanism  —  The  Poetry  of  Real  Life  —  Single-mindedness  — 
Painter  of  the  Ocean  —  Adverse  Criticism  —  Personal  Character 
and  Traits — Kindness  and  Charity — Love  of  Flowers  —  Sense 
of  Humor . 

CHAPTER  II.  Early  Days  in  Boston  and  Cambridge. 
1836-1859.  To  the  Age  of  23. 

The  Homer  Family  —  Winslow  Homer’s  Parents  —  His  Birth¬ 
place —  Removal  to  Cambridge —  School  Days  —  Juvenile  Draw¬ 
ings —  "‘Beetle  and  Wedge” — Apprenticed  to  BufFord — First 
Drawings  Published  —  Studio  in  Boston . 


CHAPTER  III.  New  York  — The  Great  War. 
1859-1863.  JE tat.  23-27. 

Studio  in  Nassau  Street  —  Studio  in  the  University  Building, 
Washington  Square — Bohemian  Life  —  His  Friends  —  Lincoln’s 
Inauguration — McClellan’s  Peninsular  Campaign  —  First  Oil 
Paintings — “  The  Sharpshooter  on  Picket  Duty”  —  “Rations” 
—  “  Defiance ”  —  “  Home,  Sweet  Home ”  —  “The  Last  Goose 
at  Yorktown  ” . .  . 

CHAPTER  IV.  Early  Works. 

1864-1871.  JEt at.  28-35. 

Pictures  of  Camp  Life  —  Made  an  Academician  —  “The  Bright 
Side  ”  —  “  Pitching  Quoits  ”  —  “  Prisoners  from  the  Front  ’  ’  — 
First  Voyage  to  Europe — What  he  did  not  do — “The  Sail- 
Boat  ”  —  Drawings  for  “  Every  Saturday  ” . 


CONTENTS 


viii 

CHAPTER  V.  Life  in  the  Country. 

1872-1876.  Aitat.  36-40. 

Studio  in  West  Tenth  Street —  “New  England  Country  School” 

—  “  Snap  the  Whip”  — A  Summer  on  Ten-Pound  Island  —  The 

Gloucester  Watercolors  —  Urban  Subjects  —  Last  of  the  “Harper’s 
Weekly  ”  Drawings  —  “  The  Two  Guides”  —  Relations  with  La 
Farge . .  .  69 

CHAPTER  VI.  Among  the  Negroes. 

1876-1880.  JE tat.  40-44. 

“The  Visit  from  the  Old  Mistress”  —  “Sunday  Morning  in 
Virginia”  —  “The  Carnival” — An  Episode  in  Petersburg  — 

The  Model  who  Ran  Away  —  The  Houghton  Farm  Watercolors 

—  “  The  Shepherdess  of  Houghton  Farm  ”  —  “  The  Camp  Fire  ” 

—  Gloucester  again  —  Homer’s  Mastery  in  Composition  .  .  *85 

CHAPTER  VII.  Tynemouth  —  The  English  Series. 
1881-1882.  JEtat.  45-46. 

The  Dwelling  at  Cullercoates — “Watching  the  Tempest”  — 

“  Perils  of  the  Sea  ”  —  “A  Voice  from  the  Cliffs  ”  —  “  Inside 
the  Bar  ”  —  A  Turning-Point  in  the  Artist’s  Career —  Watercolors 
Dealing  with  Storms  and  Shipwrecks  ........  99 

CHAPTER  VIII.  Prout’s  Neck. 

1884.  FEtat.  48. 

How  the  Homer  Brothers  discovered  and  developed  a  Summer 


Resort  in  Maine  —  Description  of  the  Place  —  Winslow  Homer’s 
Studio  —  His  Garden  —  His  Way  of  Living  —  Identification  of  his 
Masterpieces  with  Prout’s  Neck . .  109 


CHAPTER  IX.  “The  Life  Line.” 

1884.  AEtat.  48. 

The  Story-Telling  Picture  —  Sources  of  Prejudice  against  it  — 
Various  Comments  on  and  Descriptions  of  “  The  Life  Line”  — 
Exhibitions  in  Boston  —  An  Anecdote  of  a  Commission  for  a  Pic¬ 
ture  which  was  declined . .  .  .120 


CONTENTS 


IX 


CHAPTER  X.  Nassau  and  Cuba. 

1885-1886.  ALtat.  49-50. 

A  Winter  in  the  Bahamas  and  the  South  Coast  of  Cuba  —  The 
Color  of  the  Tropics —  “Searchlight,  Harbor  Entrance,  Santiago 
de  Cuba  ”  —  “  The  Gulf  Stream  ”  —  Later  Trips  to  Nassau,  Ber¬ 
muda  and  Florida . 128 

CHAPTER  XI.  Marine  Pieces  with  Figures. 

1885-1888.  Aitat.  49-52. 

“  The  Fog  Warning  ”  —  “  Lost  on  the  Grand  Banks  ”  —  “  Hark! 
the  Lark  ”  —  “  U ndertow  ”  —  “  Eight  Bells  ”  —  The  Genesis  of 
a  Deep-Sea  Classic . 137 

CHAPTER  XII.  Etchings  —  Paintings  of  the  Early 
Nineties. 

1888-1892.  A£ tat.  52-56. 

The  Series  of  Reproductions  of  his  Own  Paintings — “Cloud 
Shadows”  —  “The  West  Wind”  —  “Signal  of  Distress”  — 


“Summer  Night”  —  “Huntsman  and  Dogs”  —  “Coast  in 
Winter” . 150 


CHAPTER  XIII.  Milestones  on  the  Road  of  Art. 
1893-1894.  Aitat.  57-58. 

Honors  at  the  World’s  Columbian  Exposition  —  “The  Fox 
Hunt  ”  —  “  Storm-Beaten  ”  —  “  Below  Zero  ”  —  “  High  Cliff, 
Coast  of  Maine  ”  —  “  Moonlight,  Wood  Island  Light  ”  —  Adi- 
rondacks  Watercolors . 165 

CHAPTER  XIV.  The  Portable  Painting-house. 

1895-1896.  Aitat.  59-60. 

“Northeaster”  —  “Cannon  Rock” — The  First  Journey  to  the 
Province  of  Ouebec — “The  Lookout  —  All’s  Well!”  — 

‘  ‘  Maine  Coast  ”  —  “  The  W reck  ”  — -  “  W atching  the  Breakers  ’  ’ 

—  Honors  at  Pittsburgh  and  Philadelphia  —  “  Hauling  in  Anchor  ” 

—  Mr.  Turner’s  Reminiscences  of  Homer . 176 


X 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  XV.  The  Great  Climacteric. 

1896-1901.  Ttat.  60-65. 

Reminiscences  of  Mr.  Bixbee  —  Winslow  Homer  and  his  Father 
—  On  the  Pittsburg  Jury — “Flight  of  Wild  Geese”  —  “A 
Light  on  the  Sea” — Sale  of  the  Clarke  Collection  —  Honors  in 
Paris — “Eastern  Point”  —  “On  a  Lee  Shore” — Letters  — 

A  Shipwreck . 198 


CHAPTER  XVI.  The  O’B.  Picture. 

1901-1903.  That.  65—67. 

The  Process  of  Making  the  “Early  Morning  after  Storm  at  Sea” 


—  A  Peep  behind  the  Scenes  —  A  Lesson  in  Etiquette  —  The 
Temple  Gold  Medal  —  Off  for  Key  West  .  . . 212 


CHAPTER  XVII.  Hours  of  Despondency. 

1904-1908.  Ttat.  68-72. 

“  Kissing  the  Moon  ”  —  An  Unfinished  Picture  —  Atlantic  City  — 
Advancing  Age —  “  I  no  longer  paint”  —  “  Early  Evening”  — 
“Cape  Trinity” — The  Loan  Exhibition  in  Pittsburg  —  First 
Serious  Sickness  —  Letters . 223 

CHAPTER  XVIII.  Incidents  of  the  Last  Years. 
1908-1910.  That.  72-74. 

Aversion  for  Notoriety  —  The  Rubber-Stamp  Signature  —  Charac¬ 
teristic  Sayings —  Mural  Paintings  —  “  Right  and  Left  ”  —  “  Drift¬ 
wood  ” —  Foreign  Opinion  —  Dread  of  Counterfeiters  —  Mr. 
Macbeth’s  Visit — Questions  that  were  never  Answered  .  .  .  237 

CHAPTER  XIX.  Homer’s  Death. 

1910.  That.  74. 

The  Last  Sickness  —  Heart  Failure  —  A  Glorious  Passing  —  The 


Funeral  —  Burial  Place  at  Mount  Auburn  ■ —  His  Will  —  The  Me¬ 
morial  Exhibitions  of  191 1  in  New  York  and  Boston  —  The  Ver¬ 
dict  . 250 


CONTENTS 


xi 


APPENDIX . 273 

List  of  Pictures  by  Winslow  Homer  exhibited  in  the  Exhibitions 
of  the  National  Academy  of  Design,  New  York,  from  1863  to 
1910 . 276 

List  of  Watercolors  by  Winslow  Homer  exhibited  at  the  Exhibitions 
of  the  American  Watercolor  Society,  New  York,  from  1867  to 
1909 . 278 

List  of  Oil  Paintings  by  Winslow  Homer  exhibited  at  the  Exhibi¬ 
tions  of  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  Philadelphia, 
from  1888  to  1910 . 282 

List  of  Works  exhibited  by  Winslow  Homer  in  the  Exhibitions  of 
the  Society  of  American  Artists,  New  York,  from  1897  to  1903  .  283 

List  of  Oil  Paintings  and  Watercolors  by  Winslow  Homer  in  the 
Collection  of  Mr.  Thomas  B.  Clarke  of  New  York  ....  283 

List  of  Works  in  the  Loan  Exhibition  of  Oil  Paintings  by  Winslow 
Homer  held  at  the  Carnegie  Institute,  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania,  in 
May  and  June,  1908 . 285 

List  of  Works  in  the  Winslow  Homer  Memorial  Exhibition  held 
in  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  New  York,  February  6  to 
March  19,  191 1 . 286 

List  of  Works  in  the  Winslow  Homer  Memorial  Exhibition  held 
in  the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston,  February  7  to  March  1,1911  288 

BIBLIOGRAPHY . 291 

INDEX . 297 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PORTRAIT  OF  WINSLOW  HOMER  AT  THE  AGE 

OF  SEVENTY-TWO  Frontispiece 

From  a  photograph  taken  at  Prout's  Neck,  Maine,  in 
1908.  Photogravure 

BEETLE  AND  WEDGE;  OR,  THE  YOUTH  OF 

C.  S.  H.  Page  4 

Pencil  drawing  made  by  the  artist  at  the  age  of  eleven, 
the  earliest  of  his  works  now  in  existence.  Made  at 
Cambridge  in  1847.  By  permission  of  Mr.  Arthur  B. 
Homer,  Quincy,  Massachusetts 

PORTRAIT  OF  WINSLOW  HOMER  AT  THE  AGE 

OF  TWENTY-ONE  8 

Pencil  drawing  made  in  Boston  from  life  in  18 57  by  Joseph 
E.  Baker.  By  permission  of  Mrs.  Joseph  De  Camp 

PORTRAIT  OF  WINSLOW  HOMER  AT  THE  AGE 

OF  FORTY-TWO  12 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  Sarony  in  1878.  Courtesy 
of  Mr.  Charles  S.  Homer 

PORTRAIT  OF  WINSLOW  HOMER  AT  ABOUT 

THE  AGE  OF  THIRTY-FOUR  12 

Courtesy  of  the  New  York  Herald 

A  FAMILY  GROUP:  THE  HOMERS  AT  PROUT’S 

NECK  12 

From  a  photograph  taken  in  1896.  ( Charles  Savage 
Homer,  Senior,  Charles  Savage  Homer,  Junior,  Wins¬ 
low  Homer,  Arthur  B.  Homer,  Arthur  P.  Homer, 

Charles  L.  Homer ) 


XIV 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


WINSLOW  HOMER  AND  HIS  FATHER  AND  HIS 

DOG  SAM  1 6 

From  a  photograph  taken  at  Pr out's  Neck  by  S.  Towle. 
Courtesy  of  Mr.  C.  S.  Homer 

A  GOOD  CATCH:  WINSLOW  AND  CHARLES  S. 
HOMER  RETURNING  FROM  A  DAY’S  FISH¬ 
ING  16 

From  a  photograph.  Courtesy  of  Mr.  Charles  S.  Homer 

AN  IMPROMPTU  LECTURE  ON  ART:  WINSLOW 

HOMER  AND  HIS  MAN-SERVANT  LEWIS  20 

From  a  photograph 

PORTRAIT  OF  WINSLOW  HOMER  IN  HIS  STU¬ 
DIO  AT  PROUT’S  NECK,  SCARBORO,  MAINE  20 

From  a  photograph.  Taken  while  he  was  painting  “  The 
Gulf  Stream " 

WINSLOW  HOMER  AND  HIS  STONE  WALL  24 

From  a  photograph  taken  at  Trout' s  Neck,  December  2, 

1902.  On  the  back  of  the  original  print  is  written,  in  the 
artist's  own  handwriting:  “ Photo  of  stone  wall  built  by 
Winslozv  Homer.  Taken  on  Dec.  2, 1902.  This  poor  old 
man  seen  here  is  Winslow  Homer,  Scarboro,  Me.” 

( Rubber  stamp  signature.)  Courtesy  of  Mr.  William  V. 
O'Brien,  Chicago 

THE  STUDIO  AT  PROUT’S  NECK  24 

From  photographs  taken  in  1910.  The  east  and  the 
southwest  views 

MOUNT  WASHINGTON  28 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  W.  H.  S. 

Pearce,  Newton,  Massachusetts.  Photograph  by  Chester 
A.  Lawrence 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

FEEDING  THE  CHICKENS 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Arthur  B. 
Homer.  Painted  at  Belmont ,  Massachusetts,  about  1858. 
The  model  for  the  figure  was  the  present  owner  of  the  pic¬ 
ture.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Lawrence,  Boston 

MILITARY  PASS  ISSUED  TO  WINSLOW  HOMER 
FROM  THE  PROVOST  MARSHAL’S  OFFICE 
IN  WASHINGTON,  APRIL  i,  1862 
Courtesy  of  Mr.  Arthur  B.  Homer 

RATIONS 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  E.  II.  Bern- 
heimer,  New  York 

THE  BRIGHT  SIDE 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  W.  A. 
White 

A  WINTER  MORNING  — SHOVELING  OUT 

From  a  drawing  engraved  on  wood  by  G.  A.  Avery  for 
Every  Saturday,  Boston,  January  14,  1871 

CUTTING  A  FIGURE 

From  a  drawing  engraved  on  wood  by  W.  H.  Morse  for 
Every  Saturday,  Boston,  February  4,  1871 

GATHERING  BERRIES 

From  a  drawing  engraved  on  wood  for  Harper’s  Weekly, 
July  11,  1874 

A  COUNTRY  STORE  —  GETTING  WEIGHED 
From  a  drawing  engraved  on  wood  by  W.  J.  Linton  for 
Every  Saturday,  Boston,  March  25,  1871 

FLIRTING  ON  THE  SEASHORE  AND  ON  THE 
MEADOW 

From  a  drawing  engraved  on  wood  for  Harper’s  Weekly, 
September  19,  1874 


xv 

28 

34 

38 

38 

42 

42 

46 

46 

46 


XVI 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


SNAP  THE  WHIP  52 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Richard 
H.  Ewart,  New  York 

GLOUCESTER  HARBOR  56 

From  the  drawing  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Horace  D. 
Chapin,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Lawrence 

GLOUCESTER  HARBOR  56 

From  the  watercolor  belonging  to  the  Edward  W. 

Hooper  estate,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Law¬ 
rence 

BOYS  SWIMMING  60 

From  the  drawing  belonging  to  the  Edward  W.  Hooper 
estate,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Lawrence 

BOY  WITH  SCYTHE  60 

From  the  drawing  belonging  to  the  Edward  W.  Hooper 
estate,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Lawrence. 

RAID  ON  A  SAND-SWALLOW  COLONY  — “HOW 

MANY  EGGS?”  64 

From  a  drawing  engraved  on  wood  for  Harper’s  Weekly, 

June  13,  1874 

WAITING  FOR  A  BITE  68 

From  a  drawing  on  wood  by  Lagarde  for  Harper’s 
Weekly,  August  22,  1874 

SEESAW  —  GLOUCESTER,  MASSACHUSETTS  68 

From  a  drawing  engraved  on  wood  for  Harper’s  Weekly, 
September  12,  1874 

THE  SAND  DUNE  72 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Arthur  B. 

Homer.  Painted  at  Marshfield,  Massachusetts.  Wins¬ 
low  Homer's  mother  posed  for  the  figure.  Photograph  by 
Chester  A .  Lawrence,  Boston 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xvii 

ON  THE  BEACH  AT  MARSHFIELD  72 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Arthur  B. 

Homer.  Photograph  by  Chester  A .  Lawrence,  Boston 

THE  CARNIVAL  76 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  N.  C. 
Matthews,  Baltimore,  Maryland 

THE  VISIT  FROM  THE  OLD  MISTRESS  76 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
National  Gallery  of  Art,  Washington.  William  T.  Evans' 

gift 

A  HAPPY  FAMILY  IN  VIRGINIA  80 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Colonel  Frank 
J.  Hecker,  Detroit 

LITTLE  ARTHUR  IN  FEAR  OF  HARMING  A 

WORM  84 

From  the  drawing  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Arthur  B. 

Homer.  Photograph  by  Chester  A .  Lawrence,  Boston 

LITTLE  CHARLIE’S  INNOCENT  AMUSEMENTS  84 

From  the  drawing  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Arthur  B. 
Homer.  Photograph  by  Chester  A .  Lawrence,  Boston 

THE  HONEYMOON  (MR.  AND  MRS.  A.  B.  HOMER)  84 

From  the  drawing  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Arthur  B. 
Homer.  Made  at  Kettle  Cove,  Prout's  Neck,  Maine, 

1875.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Lawrence,  Boston 

FISHERWOMEN,  TYNEMOUTH  88 

From  the  drawing  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  William 
Howe  Downes.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Lawrence, 

Boston 

WATCHING  THE  TEMPEST  88 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Burton 
Mansfield,  New  Haven,  Connecticut 


xviii  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PERILS  OF  THE  SEA  92 

From  the  etching  by  Winslow  Homer ,  after  his  water- 
color  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Alexander  C.  Humphreys , 

M.E.,  Sc.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  the  Stevens  Institute 
of  Technology,  Castle  Point,  Hoboken,  New  Jersey. 
Copyright  by  C.  Klackner,  New  York 

MENDING  NETS;  OR,  FAR  FROM  BILLINGSGATE  96 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Charles  W. 

Gould,  New  York 

SHIPWRECK  100 

From  the  drawing  in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  Roger  S. 
Warner,  Boston.  ( Inscribed :  “  Wreck  of  the  Iron  Crown, 
Tynemouth,  Oct.  25,  1881.")  Photograph  by  Chester  A. 
Lawrence 


FISHERWOMAN,  TYNEMOUTH  100 

From  the  watercolor  belonging  to  the  Edward  W.  Hooper 
estate,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Lawrence 

RETURNING  FISHING  BOATS  104 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Horace  D. 

Chapin,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Lawrence 

STORM  ON  THE  ENGLISH  COAST  104 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  Roger  S. 
Warner,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Lawrence 

STORM  AT  SEA  no 

From  the  drawing  in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  Roger  S. 
Warner,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Lawrence 

THREE  GIRLS  no 

From  the  drawing  in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  Roger  S. 
Warner,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Lawrence 

THE  LIFE  LINE  114 

From  the  etching  by  Winslow  Homer,  after  his  oil  paint- 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


xix 


ing  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  G.  W.  Elkins.  Copyright  by 
C.  Klackner,  New  York 

GOING  BERRYING  118 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Horace  D. 
Chapin,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Lawrence 

BAHAMA  118 

From  the  watercolor  belonging  to  the  Edward  W.  Hooper 
estate,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A .  Lawrence 

ILLUSTRATION  TO  WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRY¬ 
ANT’S  POEM,  “THE  FOUNTAIN”  118 

ON  THE  FENCE  118 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  William 
Howe  Downes.  Painted  at  Houghton  Farm,  Mountain- 
mile,  New  York,  in  1878.  Photograph  by  Chester  A. 
Lawrence,  Boston 

CUSTOM  HOUSE,  SANTIAGO  DE  CUBA  122 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  Roger  S. 
Warner,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Lawrence 

UNDER  A  PALM  TREE  122 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  F.  Rocke¬ 
feller,  Cleveland,  Ohio 

MARKET  SCENE,  NASSAU  122 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  R.  A. 
Thompson 

THE  GULF  STREAM  126 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  New  York 

THE  FOG  WARNING  730 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston 


XX 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


BANKS  FISHERMEN;  OR,  THE  HERRING  NET  134 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Charles  W. 

Gould ,  New  York 

HARK!  THE  LARK  138 

From  the  photogravure ,  copyright  by  Winslow  Iiomer 
and  published  by  C.  Klackner,  New  York,  after  the  oil 
painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the  Layton  Art 
Gallery,  Milwaukee,  Wisconsin 

UNDERTOW  142 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Edward  D. 
Adams,  New  York 

EIGHT  BELLS  146 

From  a  wood  engraving  by  Henry  Wolf,  after  the  oil 
painting  by  Winslow  Homer  in  the  collection  of  Mr. 
Edward  T.  Stotesbury,  Philadelphia.  Courtesy  of  the 
Century  Company,  New  York 

TO  THE  RESCUE  150 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Thomas  L. 
Manson,  Jr.,  New  York 

MOONLIGHT,  WOOD  ISLAND  LIGHT  150 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  George  A . 

Hearn,  New  York 

ROWING  HOMEWARD  154 

From  a  watercolor  4 

CLOUD  SHADOWS  154 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  R.  C. 

Hall,  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania 

SUMMER  SQUALL  158 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Morris  J. 
Hirsch,  New  York 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


xxi 


SUNLIGHT  ON  THE  COAST  158 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  John  G. 
Johnson ,  Philadelphia 

THE  WEST  WIND  162 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Samuel 
Untermeyer,  New  York 

THE  SIGNAL  OF  DISTRESS  166 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Edward  T. 
Stotesbury,  Philadelphia 

A  SUMMER  NIGHT  170 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  Luxembourg  Museum,  Paris 

HOUND  AND  HUNTER  174 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Louis 
Eltlinger,  New  York 

HUNTSMAN  AND  DOGS  178 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  Bancel 
La  Farge 

THE  TWO  GUIDES  178 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  C.  J. 

Blair,  Chicago 

THE  FOX  HUNT  182 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  Philadelphia. 

By  permission.  Copyright  by  Pennsylvania  Academy 
of  the  Fine  A  rts 

BELOW  ZERO  186 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  possession  of  M.  Knoedler 
and  Company 

WEATHER-BEATEN;  OR,  STORM-BEATEN  186 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  F.  S. 
Smithers,  New  York 


xxii  ILLUSTRATIONS 

ON  THE  CLIFF  186 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Thomas 
L.  Manson,  Jr.,  New  York 

HIGH  CLIFF,  COAST  OF  MAINE  190 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
National  Gallery,  Washington,  D.  C.  Gift  of  Mr.  Wil¬ 
liam  T.  Evans 

THE  FISHER  GIRL  194 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Burton 
Mansfield,  New  Haven,  Connecticut 

SALMON  FISHING  198 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Colonel  Frank 
J.  Hecker,  Detroit 

ADIRONDACKS  198 

From  the  watercolor  belonging  to  the  Edward  W.  Hooper 
estate,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A .  Lawrence 

WATERFALL,  ADIRONDACKS  202 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Charles  L. 

Freer,  Detroit 

NORTHEASTER  206 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  New  York 

CANNON  ROCK  212 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  A  rt,  New  York 

SHOOTING  THE  RAPIDS  216 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  J.  J.  Storrow 
Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A .  Lawrence 


THE  PORTAGE 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Desmond 


216 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xxiii 

FitzGerald ,  Brookline,  Massachusetts.  Photograph  by 
Chester  A .  Lawrence 

THE  LOOKOUT  — ALL’S  WELL  220 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston 

FAC-SIMILE  OF  A  LETTER  FROM  WINSLOW 

HOMER  TO  THE  AUTHOR  224 

THE  MAINE  COAST  228 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  George  A . 

Hearn,  New  York 

THE  WRECK  232 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Carnegie  Institute,  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania 

WATCHING  THE  BREAKERS:  A  HIGH  SEA  236 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  H.  W. 

Rogers 

HAULING  IN  ANCHOR  240 

Watercolor  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the  Cincin¬ 
nati  Museum  Association.  Painted  at  Key  West 

A  LIGHT  ON  THE  SEA  240 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Corcoran  Gallery  of  Art,  Washington 

RIGHT  AND  LEFT  244 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Randal 
Morgan,  Philadelphia 

FLIGHT  OF  WILD  GEESE  244 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  Roland 
C.  Lincoln,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Baldwin  Coolidge 

ON  A  LEE  SHORE  248 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Rhode  Island  School  of  Design,  Providence,  Rhode  Island 


XXIV 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


EARLY  MORNING  AFTER  STORM  AT  SEA  252 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  W.  K. 

Bixhy,  Saint  Louis 

KISSING  THE  MOON;  OR,  SUNSET  AND  MOON- 

RISE  256 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Dr.  Lewis  A. 
Stimson,  New  York 

EARLY  EVENING  260 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Charles  L. 

Freer,  Detroit 

CAPE  TRINITY,  SAGUENAY  RIVER  264 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Burton 
Mansfield,  New  Haven,  Connecticut 

DRIFTWOOD  264 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Frank  L. 
Babbott,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

RUM  CAY,  BERMUDA  266 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Worcester  Art  Museum.  Copyright,  Detroit  Publishing 
Company 

BOYS  AND  KITTEN  266 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Worcester  Art  Museum.  Copyright,  Detroit  Publishing 
Company 

SHOOTING  THE  RAPIDS,  SAGUENAY  RIVER  270 

From  the  unfinished  oil  painting,  given  to  the  Metropoli¬ 
tan  Museum  of  Art,  New  York,  by  Mr.  Charles  S. 
Homer,  in  iqii 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 


IT  is  an  agreeable  task  which  the  author  of  this  volume 
has  invited  me  to  perform,  the  writing  of  a  few  lines  of 
introduction  to  his  book.  It  is  especially  pleasant  be¬ 
cause  it  affords  me  the  opportunity  to  express  briefly  my 
high  opinion  of  Winslow  Homer’s  power  as  a  painter  and 
of  the  frank  and  forceful  character  of  the  man. 

The  dominating  trait  of  Homer’s  character  was  honesty, 
and  this  priceless  characteristic  colored  every  act  of  his  life 
and  found  abundant  expression  in  his  art.  His  mind  operated 
in  a  direct  and  forceful  manner,  and  sincerity  was  expressed 
in  everything  he  did  or  said. 

The  basis  of  his  art,  I  think,  was  simple  truth  ;  and  this 
quality,  easily  comprehended  by  all,  was  that  which  made 
Homer’s  paintings  universally  popular  and  easily  under¬ 
stood.  Truth,  in  whatever  form,  needs  no  explanation,  being 
its  own  best  interpreter. 

No  one,  I  think,  was  ever  heard  to  talk  about  Homer’s 
manner  of  painting,  or  about  his  technical  skill,  as  of  special 
importance.  It  was  always  the  verity  of  the  work,  or  the 
dignity  and  grandeur  of  the  ocean,  often  expressed  by  him 
without  apparent  effort,  but  always  in  a  perfectly  direct  and 
simple  manner,  which  was  the  theme  of  conversation. 

He  approached  nature  as  a  child  might,  without  a  thought 
of  displaying  technical  dexterity,  and  he  transmitted  or  re¬ 
produced  that  which  impressed  him  with  simplicity  and  with 
a  devotion  akin  to  unquestioning  reverence.  Never  did  the 
thought  of  taking  from  or  of  adding  to  that  which  was  his 
task  seem  to  occur  to  him  for  a  moment. 


XXVI 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 


Notwithstanding  this  mental  attitude,  he  was  exacting  to 
the  last  degree  in  the  selection  of  the  particular  phase  or 
effect  of  nature  which  he  desired  to  reproduce.  On  one  occa¬ 
sion  he  said  :  — 

“  The  rare  thing  is  to  find  a  painter  who  knows  a  good 
thing  when  he  sees  it.” 

I  also  recall  his  statement  that  he  had  waited  six  months 
for  the  coming  of  a  particular  effect  or  expression  of  nature. 
To  lie  in  wait  for  the  rare  or  exceptional  phase  of  nature, 
and  especially  the  dramatic,  and  to  reproduce  with  fidelity 
and  power  the  effect  waited  for  or  discovered,  seemed  to  be 
Homer’s  purpose,  especially  during  the  latter  years  of  his 
life.  Thus  it  is  that  many  of  his  paintings  represent  the  tem¬ 
pestuous  ocean. 

Indeed,  when  I  knew  him  he  was  comparatively  indiffer¬ 
ent  to  the  ordinary  and  peaceful  aspects  of  the  ocean,  lefer- 
ring  once  to  the  sea  as  a  “mill  pond,”  as  if  it  possessed 
little  interest  for  him  in  that  mood.  But  when  the  lowering 
clouds  gathered  above  the  horizon,  and  tumultuous  waves 
ran  along  the  rock-bound  coast  and  up  the  shelving,  precipi¬ 
tous  rocks,  his  interest  became  intense. 

There  came  one  morning  at  Prout’s  Neck,  with  a  misty 
and  threatening  sky,  when  gray  clouds,  bewitching  in  their 
silvery  tones,  went  hurrying  across  the  troubled  sea.  By 
noon  it  was  blowing  a  gale,  and  the  waves  were  lashing  the 
coast,  sending  spray  high  into  the  air.  The  driving  rain 
slanted  sharply  under  porch  and  awning,  and  the  summer 
boarders  gathered  about  wood  fires,  with  complaining  voices. 
Once  and  again,  great  clouds  of  mist  drove  across  the  de¬ 
serted  rocks,  and  the  music  of  old  ocean  rose  to  an  ominous 
and  resounding  tone.  Nothing  could  have  induced  a  soul  to 
go  forth,  save  only  a  mission  of  mercy ;  but  at  three  o’clock 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE  xxvii 

Homer  hurried  into  my  room,  robed  from  head  to  foot  in 
rubber,  and  carrying  in  his  arms  a  storm-coat  and  a  pair  of 
sailor’s  boots.  “  Come  !  ”  he  said,  “  quickly  !  It  is  perfectly 
grand  1  ” 

For  an  hour  we  clambered  over  rocks,  holding  fast  to  the 
wiry  shrubs  which  grew  from  every  crevice,  while  the  spray 
dashed  far  overhead.  This  placid,  reserved,  self-contained 
little  man  was  in  a  fever  of  excitement,  and  his  delight  in 
the  thrilling  and  almost  overpowering  expression  of  the 
ocean,  as  it  foamed  and  rioted,  was  truly  inspiring. 

There  comes  to  my  mind  an  incident  which  will  illustrate 
his  unyielding  attitude  towards  absolute  truth.  On  the  occa¬ 
sion  of  one  of  my  visits  to  his  home,  we  were  picking  our 
way  along  the  coast,  over  the  shelving  rocks  he  painted  so 
often  and  with  such  insight  and  power,  when  I  suddenly 
said :  — 

“  Mr.  Homer,  do  you  ever  take  the  liberty,  in  painting 
nature,  of  modifying  the  color  of  any  part  ?  ” 

The  inquiry  seemed  to  startle  him.  Arresting  his  steps  for 
an  instant,  he  firmly  clenched  his  hand,  and,  bringing  it  down 
with  a  quick  action,  exclaimed  :  — 

“  Never !  Never !  When  I  have  selected  the  thing  carefully, 
I  paint  it  exactly  as  it  appears.”  Turning  towards  his  studio, 
and  pointing  to  the  gallery  which  hangs  along  the  second 
story,  he  added:  “When  I  was  painting  the  Luxembourg 
picture,  I  carried  the  canvas,  repeatedly,  from  the  rocks  below, 
hung  it  on  that  balcony,  and  studied  it  from  a  distance  with 
reference  solely  to  its  simple  and  absolute  truth.  Never  !  ”  he 
reiterated,  as  we  moved  on  in  the  direction  of  the  sea. 

Winslow  Homer  was  extremely  reluctant  to  express  any 
opinion  touching  his  art ;  and  indeed  in  the  latter  years  of 
his  life  he  rigorously  avoided  the  subject.  This  frank  and 


xxviii  INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 

emphatic  expression,  which  seemed  to  comprehend  and  ex¬ 
press  a  profound  conviction,  was  doubtless  called  forth  by 
the  apparent  folly  of  my  question.  I  will  admit  that  the  pro¬ 
vocation  was  great,  and  that  the  query  belied  my  innermost 
belief  touching  the  essential  quality  in  art. 

Notwithstanding  Homer’s  sturdy  character,  as  illustrated 
by  these  incidents,  there  was  another  side  of  his  nature.  His 
intense  fondness  for  flowers  was  but  one  expression  of  his 
gentler  side.  There  could  not  be  a  more  thoughtful  host,  and 
his  solicitude  and  delicate  attentions  were  almost  womanly 
in  their  charm.  Not  a  single  morning  passed  by  during  my 
several  visits  when  he  did  not  present  to  me,  with  his  greet¬ 
ing,  a  few  flowers,  and  with  the  members  of  his  family  this 
was  his  daily  custom. 

He  was  reticent,  probably  morose  to  some  extent,  but 
never  uncharitable.  I  do  not  recall  a  harsh  criticism  spoken 
by  him  in  reference  to  the  work  of  any  fellow  painter. 

Not  all  of  Homer’s  pictures  are  equal  in  technical  qualities, 
but  those  of  his  later  and  most  powerful  period,  among  which 
may  be  included  the  “High  Cliff,  Coast  of  Maine,”  now  in 
the  National  Gallery  at  Washington,  are  masterly  works. 
He  painted  the  inspiring  grandeur  and  dignity  of  the  ocean 
with  a  power  not  excelled  by  any  painter  in  the  entire  his¬ 
tory  of  art,  and  he  has  left  a  rich  legacy  and  an  inspiring 
record. 


John  W.  Beatty. 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORKS  OF 
WINSLOW  HOMER 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORKS  OF 
WINSLOW  HOMER 


CHAPTER  I 


THE  ARTIST  AND  THE  MAN 


Winslow  Homer’s  Chief  Titles  to  Fame — His  Individuality  and  Ameri¬ 
canism  —  The  Poetry  of  Real  Life  —  Single-mindedness  —  Painter  of  the 
Ocean  —  Adverse  Criticism  —  Personal  Character  and  Traits — Kindness 
and  Charity — Love  of  Flowers —  Sense  of  Humor. 


HE  life  of  Winslow  Homer,  as  revealed  in  his  works, 


is  a  study  worthy  of  the  serious  attention  of  the 


historian  and  critic.  I  bring  to  this  labor  of  love  at 
least  one  valid  qualification,  that  is  to  say,  a  lifelong  interest 
in  and  enthusiastic  admiration  for  his  works. 

Winslorv  Homer  is  an  important  figure  in  the  annals  of 
American  art,  and  the  period  in  which  he  lived  and  wrought, 
the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  produced  no  Ameri¬ 
can  painter  so  thoroughly  national  in  style  and  character. 
He  was  the  most  original  American  painter  of  that  time,  and 
at  the  same  time  the  most  representative.  His  art  was 
intensely  personal  and  intensely  American.  These  two  pre¬ 
eminent  qualities  are  his  chief  titles  to  fame. 

Through  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  American 
art  was  gradually  finding  itself.  One  of  the  results  of  the 
Civil  War  was  a  heightened  national  consciousness  which 
found  expression  in  art.  George  Inness,  William  Morns 
Hunt,  John  La  Farge,  Eastman  Johnson,  George  Fuller,  and 


4 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


Augustus  Saint-Gaudens  are  of  the  illustrious  names  which 
belong  to  this  period.  But  none  of  these  artists  was  either 
as  individual  or  as  national  as  Winslow  Homer.  His  contri¬ 
bution  is  new,  fresh,  novel,  has  nothing  of  foreign  tradition 
in  it.  It  therefore  marks  a  distinctly  significant  evolution, 
and  takes  a  conspicuous  place  in  a  historic  sense.  Up  to  the 
time  of  Winslow  Homer’s  appearance  on  the  stage  of  events, 
our  art  had  been  in  great  measure  a  reflection  of  the  Euro¬ 
pean  traditions.  It  did  not  lack  cleverness,  elegance,  charm ; 
in  individual  instances  it  did  not  lack  passion,  power,  poetry ; 
but  —  speaking  in  terms  of  broad  generalization  —  it  lacked 
a  vernacular  accent.  It  was,  in  a  word,  eclectic. 

It  is  Winslow  Homer’s  distinction  that  he  was  the  first 
American  painter  to  use  an  American  idiom.  Not  only  his 
subjects,  but  his  manner  of  treating  them ;  not  only  his 
motives,  but  his  point  of  view  ;  not  only  his  material,  but 
the  style  and  sentiment  in  which  he  clothes  it,  have  the 
stamp  of  Americanism  indelibly  impressed  on  them. 

To  say  that  his  style  is  American,  is  to  say  that  it  is  new, 
unrelated  in  its  externals  to  the  traditions  of  painting  in 
Europe  and  Asia,  though  its  content  may  be,  of  course,  as 
old  as  the  search  for  truth,  which  has  always  existed.  It  is 
an  American  trait  to  ignore  the  processes  and  experiences 
of  older  races  and  communities,  to  try  for  results  without 
studying  into  the  means  used  by  older  civilizations  in  reach¬ 
ing  the  same  goals ;  and  in  some  departments  of  human 
activity  this  trait  must  assuredly  be  set  down  as  costly  and 
foolish.  But  in  the  art  of  painting  it  has  manifest  advan¬ 
tages.  One  of  these  is  the  disciplinary  effect  of  the  inde¬ 
pendent  and  unaided  struggle  to  invent  the  means  of  ex¬ 
pression  ;  “he  that  overcometh  shall  inherit  all  things.”  The 
easy  way  is  to  acquire  the  trick  of  the  trade  from  some 


BEETLE  AND  WEDGE;  OR,  THE  YOUTH  OF 
C.  S.  H. 

Pencil  drawing  made  by  the  artist  at  the  age  of  eleven , 
the  earliest  of  his  works  now  in  existence.  Made  at 
Cambridge  in  1847.  By  permission  of  Mr.  Arthur  B. 
Homer,  Quincy,  Massachusetts 


q0  HTUOY  3HT  ,510  ;  300377  CIMA  3JT33H 

.11  .2  .0 

,vv><sa*\a  \o  as®  s&i  S©  &iVt©  as\\  v<S  ab-Wfl  .w.  Ua«a3. 
tv>  abaVi.  .aaivaulxa  m  aso«  idw«&  Y 
.a  .  k3  L\o  •-■  ^ »  I  ' -  *p  _ 
iV  .wubaafcU  /n .  n\0  ^awoE 


THE  ARTIST  AND  THE  MAN 


5 


skillful  master ;  it  is  a  specious  but  delusive  policy.  Oddly 
enough,  one  painter  can  learn  but  little  that  is  worth  while, 
in  technical  matters,  from  another  painter,  at  least  so  far  as 
practice  is  concerned.  This  is  why  the  schools  of  art  do  not 
educate  the  art  student.  Every  painter  has  to  begin  at  the 
beginning  and  construct  his  world  for  himself.  He  stands  or 
falls  by  his  own  degree  of  personal  capacity  to  create  his 
own  language,  for  if  he  uses  a  vocabulary  already  current, 
he  is  merely  an  echo  of  an  echo. 

Winslow  Homer  created  his  method  of  painting  as  truly 
as  Velasquez  created  his  method,  that  is  to  say,  from  the 
very  ground  up.  The  same  spirit  of  truth  animated  both 
these  men.  They  were  equally  loyal  to  the  light  within. 
They  obeyed  the  injunction,  “Be  thou  strong  and  very 
courageous,  that  thou  mayest  observe  to  do  according  to 
all  the  law ;  turn  not  from  it  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the  left.” 
Different  as  these  men  were,  both  dealt  exclusively  with 
realities  —  visible,  tangible,  material  realities  ;  they  painted 
only  what  they  saw  ;  and  their  works  illustrate  the  good  old 
adage  that  truth  is  stranger  than  fiction,  in  the  sense  that  it 
is  more  interesting. 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  work  of  the  ex¬ 
ponent  of  realities  is  necessarily  wanting  in  the  element  of 
poetry.  Real  life  is  not  without  poetry  ;  far  from  it.  The 
poet  is  he  who  discovers  the  interesting  and  beautiful  aspect 
of  common  and  everyday  things.  It  is  because  Winslow 
Homer  possessed  in  an  exceptional  degree  simplicity  of 
spirit,  love  of  truth,  and  single-mindedness,  that  his  work  so 
abounds  in  the  unexpectedness  of  the  usual.  The  newness 
of  the  impression  arises,  not  from  the  novelty  of  the  subject- 
matter,  but  from  the  personal  point  of  view  of  the  painter. 
The  poetry  of  rhythm  is  frequently  felt  in  his  design,  which 


6 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


is  noble,  plastic,  and  of  monumental  breadth.  But  a  still 
more  essential  poetry  is  that  of  “  the  still,  sad  music  of  hu¬ 
manity”  which  makes  itself  manifest  in  his  pictures  of  men 
in  their  age-long  and  unending  struggle  to  bend  the  forces 
of  nature  to  their  uses. 

And,  if  it  would  be  an  error  to  suppose  that  he  who  deals 
in  realities  must  needs  be  prosaic,  it  would  be  also  dangerous 
to  assume  that  a  painter  whose  vision  is  so  unprejudiced 
and  sane  and  penetrating,  whose  attachment  to  simple  truth 
is  so  evident,  and  whose  works  all  have  to  do  with  the  life 
of  to-day,  is  destitute  of  imagination.  On  the  contrary,  Wins¬ 
low  Homer’s  ability  to  perceive  the  scene  in  its  integrity, 
the  vivid  and  convincing  appearance  of  actuality  that  he  im¬ 
parted  to  form,  movement,  and  color,  are  so  many  implica¬ 
tions  of  the  high  attributes  of  imagination  in  the  artist.  But 
the  unique  and  individual  quality  of  imagination  in  his  case 
precluded  any  tampering  with  the  truth.  He  saw  and  felt 
the  tremendous  significance  of  the  visible  world,  and  he  dis¬ 
dained  all  puerile  attempts  to  improve  upon  the  works  of 
God.  He  understood  instinctively  that  — 

To  gild  refined  gold,  to  paint  the  lily. 

To  throw  a  perfume  on  the  violet. 

To  smooth  the  ice,  or  add  another  hue 
Unto  the  rainbow,  or  with  taper-light 
To  seek  the  beautous  eye  of  heaven  to  garnish. 

Is  wasteful  and  ridiculous  excess. 

Thus  his  relations  with  Mother  Nature,  his  only  teacher, 
were  those  of  a  beautifully  docile  and  humble  student.  In 
reality  he  had  no  other  teacher.  He  belonged  to  no  school. 
He  leaves  no  pupils,  no  followers.  In  nature  and  life  he 
found  all  the  beauty,  interest,  and  meaning  that  he  so  simply 
and  sincerely  expressed  in  his  pictures.  His  style  is  the  nat- 


THE  ARTIST  AND  THE  MAN 


7 


ural  and  necessary  exterior  form  of  his  unique  and  solitary 
temperament.  It  is  characterized  by  invariable  honesty  and 
seriousness,  by  an  intuitive  sense  of  self-respect  and  high  re¬ 
serve.  Unsentimental,  but  far  from  unfeeling,  his  sympathies 
were  for  the  natural,  primitive,  elemental,  universal  things 
in  men  and  landscape  alike.  He  was  singularly  gifted  with 
the  faculty  of  seeing  these  great  things  in  their  stark  integ¬ 
rity,  and  of  giving  to  their  physical  embodiments  that  air  of 
individual  distinction  which  is  so  often  a  concomitant  of  sim¬ 
plicity  and  modesty. 

I  have  spoken  of  his  single-mindedness.  His  was  a  career 
in  which  no  side  issues,  no  distractions,  no  wavering  of  the 
will,  no  possible  question  about  the  aim  of  effort,  the  goal  to 
be  sought,  were  suffered  to  interrupt  the  steady,  resolute, 
tenacious  progress  from  stage  to  stage,  from  the  day  of 
small  things  to  that  of  great  things.  He  knew  from  the  outset 
what  he  wanted  to  do,  and  he  went  about  the  doing  of  it  with 
a  deadly  seriousness.  He  taught  himself  to  draw.  All  men 
who  would  learn  to  draw  must  needs  do  likewise.  Drawing 
did  not  come  easily  to  him.  Does  it  to  any  one  ?  There  is  no 
royal  road  to  art.  We  speak  with  bated  breath  of  the  self- 
made  man  ;  but  are  not  all  men  self-made,  if  they  are  made  at 
all  ?  Surely,  Winslow  Homer’s  school  was  not  the  class-room, 
nor  did  he  choose  to  avail  himself  of  the  customary  advan¬ 
tages  of  professional  training,  and  possibly  that  is  one  of  the 
very  reasons  why  he  could  make  the  best  of  himself.  The 
man  was  indomitable.  Obstacles  only  stimulated  his  ambi¬ 
tion.  His  academy  was  the  real  world ;  it  was  everywhere 
and  at  all  times  his  atelier,  for  he  worked  at  all  hours  and 
places.  Art  was  his  vocation.  He  did  not  choose  it.  It  chcse 
him. 

From  the  beginning  his  art  concerned  itself  with  the  lives 


8 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


of  men  and  women,  and  more  particularly  with  soldiers, 
sailors,  fishermen,  and  their  wives  and  children  ;  woodsmen, 
hunters,  pioneers,  farmers,  and,  in  general,  the  people  who 
live  and  labor  in  the  open.  The  landscape  background 
against  which  the  human  figures  are  projected  has  a  large 
importance  and  a  great  significance  ;  the  environment  of  the 
soldier  being  the  camp,  the  bivouac,  the  entrenchments  ;  that 
of  the  sailor  the  deck  of  the  ship  at  sea ;  that  of  the  fisher¬ 
man  his  fishing  smack  or  dory ;  that  of  his  women-folk  the 
fishing  village  or  the  harbor  or  the  beach  ;  that  of  the  woods¬ 
man,  guide,  and  hunter,  the  wilderness  of  Canada  or  Maine 
or  the  Adirondacks ;  while  the  farmer  is  shown  at  his  work 
in  the  fields.  It  is  not  always  possible  to  say  definitely 
whether  the  landscape  or  the  figures  in  it  play  the  dominant 
part  in  the  composition,  so  inextricably  knit  together  are  the 
elements  which  unite  in  the  pictorial  ensemble.  Oitenest  it  is 
the  man  or  the  men,  doubtless,  who  occupy,  as  it  were,  the 
middle  of  the  stage.  But  the  setting  is  never  a  negligible 
quantity.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  made  to  enhance,  to  explain, 
even  to  exalt  the  actor  ;  to  supplement  and  complete  the  im¬ 
pression  made  by  him  ;  to  throw  new  light  upon  his  voca¬ 
tion  and  kindle  the  imagination  of  the  observer  as  to  its 
possibilities  in  the  promotion  of  manly  virtues. 

The  early  drawings  contributed  to  “  Harper’s  Weekly  ” 
during  the  Civil  War  possess  a  double  title  to  our  interest. 
They  are  first-hand  documents  concerning  that  greatest  of 
our  wars,  and  they  illustrate  from  month  to  month  just  how 
the  young  artist  was  acquiring  his  training.  The  seventeen 
years  of  drudgery  (if  it  was  drudgery),  when  he  was  obliged 
to  make  his  way  by  doing  black-and-white  work  for  the  illus¬ 
trated  press,  proved  to  be  the  severest  and  most  useful 
course  of  practice  for  a  painter,  more  prolonged,  more  ardu- 


PORTRAIT  OF  WINSLOW  HOMER  AT  THE  AGE 
OF  TWENTY-ONE 

Pencil  drawing  made  in  Boston  from  life  in  1857  by  Joseph 
E.  Baker.  By  permission  of  Mrs.  Joseph  De  Camp 


JOA  3HX  TA  5IJ1I/IOH  WOJ2VIIW  30  T1A3T303 

a/.C  YTK3WT  30 

-  wbX  \zl\  m  3\s\  «*^\jw0fcssS  Ki  s&fes»  is#  Vn-wVl' 
sG.  &<^w.oY  .r\V.  \o  tromimot  .YiioS.  .3. 


THE  ARTIST  AND  THE  MAN 


9 


ous,  and  more  tangible  in  its  results,  than  any  possible 
schooling  in  a  regular  art  academy.  Nature  was  the  model, 
and  he  drew  from  nature  in  every  imaginable  phase :  the 
human  figure,  animals,  landscape,  marines,  everything  that 
came  in  his  way.  Consider  the  immense  range  of  his  sub¬ 
ject-matter  from  the  beginning :  camp  life  in  Virginia, 
negro  genre,  rustic  life  and  farm  episodes  in  New  England, 
hunting  and  fishing  scenes  in  the  North  Woods  and  the 
Province  of  Quebec,  the  life  of  the  sailor  and  fisherman  both 
afloat  and  ashore,  the  tropical  life  and  scenery  of  the  Bahama 
Islands,  Cuba,  Key  West,  and  Florida,  city  street  scenes  in 
New  York  and  Boston,  the  American  summer  resorts  and 
watering  places,  —  and  verily  it  seems  as  if  he  might  have 
taken  for  his  motto  :  Humani  nihil  alienum. 

As  the  painter  of  the  ocean,  Winslow  Homer  stands  pre¬ 
eminent.  There  have  been  many  marine  painters  of  ability 
in  the  history  of  nineteenth-century  art,  but  there  is  only 
one  Winslow  Homer.  The  painter  of  “The  Maine  Coast,” 
“On  a  Lee  Shore,”  “Cannon  Rock,”  “The  West  Wind,” 
“High  Cliff,  Coast  of  Maine,”  and  “A  Summer  Night”  is 
sui  generis.  Other  men  have  given  excellent  interpreta¬ 
tions  of  the  sea  in  its  moods  of  peace  or  storm,  calm  or 
fury;  I  would  not  disparage  their  achievements  by  invidious 
comparisons  ;  American  artists  have  won  legitimate  laurels 
in  this  difficult  field  of  effort,  —  there  is  glory  enough  for 
them  all. 

In  Homer’s  marine  pieces  there  is  the  consummate  expres¬ 
sion  of  the  power  of  the  ocean.  The  subject  may  be  and  often 
is  storm  and  stress,  but  the  most  violent  manifestations  of 
what  we  call  the  anger  of  the  wind  and  wave  are  interpreted 
without  exaggeration.  In  the  very  “  torrent,  tempest,  and 
whirlwind  of  [his]  passion  ”  he  had  the  temperance  that  gave 


IO 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


it  smoothness;  he  did  not  o’erstep  the  modesty  of  nature. 
The  weight  and  thrust  of  an  Atlantic  billow,  the  rush  and 
turmoil  of  the  surf,  the  dynamic  force  of  the  pounding  seas 
in  a  winter  gale,  are  realized  in  his  paintings  with  an  invig¬ 
orating  vividness,  it  is  true,  but  the  synthetic  method  by 
which  his  art  conveys  such  impressions  is  the  result  of  a  life¬ 
long  course  of  patient  observation  and  experimentation  ;  the 
instantaneous  vision  of  a  huge  toppling  breaker,  the  affair 
of  the  fraction  of  a  second,  may  have  cost  the  close  study  of 
years.  It  is  natural  to  be  carried  away  by  the  sheer  strength 
and  swiftness  of  the  movement  of  these  ocean  symphonies, 
but  the  wonderful  things  about  them,  after  all,  are  their  deli¬ 
cacy  and  reserve.  The  artist  found  a  way  to  simplify  the 
complexities  of  a  motive  which  abounds  in  perplexing  cross¬ 
currents  and  eddies,  to  reduce  a  seeming  chaos  to  order,  to 
suggest  beneath  the  apparent  anarchy  of  troubled  waters  the 
universal  reign  of  law.  Though  he  must  have  felt  the  exhila¬ 
ration  caused  by  extraordinary  manifestations  of  natural  forces, 
such  as  a  northeaster  on  the  coast  of  Maine,  his  style,  free 
from  the  spectacular,  remains  natural.  The  tempest’s  rage  is 
not  in  his  blood  ;  calm  in  the  midst  of  its  violence,  his  hand 
and  eye  are  steady,  and  his  work  betrays  neither  agitation 
nor  haste.  Nothing  but  truth  endures.  It  is  sufficient.  The 
art  which  rests  on  that  lives  and  will  live. 

I  think  we  can  read  between  the  lines  in  Homer’s  works  a 
conviction  of  the  superiority  of  nature  to  art.  He  realized, 
with  Emerson,  that  “  the  best  pictures  are  rude  draughts  of 
a  few  of  the  miraculous  dots  and  lines  and  dyes  which  make 
up  the  everchanging  ‘landscape  with  figures’  amidst  which 
we  dwell.”  He  measured  his  success  as  a  painter,  not  by  those 
standards  which  are  in  the  last  analysis  a  group  of  memories 
of  pictures,  but  by  the  degree  of  the  exactitude  with  which 


THE  ARTIST  AND  THE  MAN 


ii 


he  was  able  to  give  the  look  of  nature  in  his  own  terms.  Now, 
this  loyalty  to  the  naked  truth  is  not  a  common  trait  in  paint¬ 
ers.  No  doubt  they  all  profess  it ;  they  all  aspire  to  it ;  but  it 
is  not  given  to  many  to  attain  to  it.  How  much  of  this  was 
an  inborn  gift  it  is  not  for  any  man  to  say. 

Every  original  artist’s  work  has  the  defects  of  its  merits  — 
a  paradox  which  contains  a  germ  of  truth.  It  is  not  to  be  ex¬ 
pected  that  the  productions  of  a  painter  like  Homer  shall 
escape  adverse  criticism.  There  are  many  artists  who  are 
quite  ready  to  outlaw  a  painter  whose  methods  are  so  antag¬ 
onistic  to  all  their  preconceived  ideas  and  principles.  Homer 
offended  many  of  his  professional  brethren  by  his  aggressive 
individuality.  His  way  of  doing  things  was  in  itself  an  offense 
to  the  mediocre  painter.  Yet  there  were  also  artists  of  mark 
and  likelihood,  themselves  original  and  independent  search¬ 
ers  for  truth,  who  failed  to  understand  him  and  his  art ;  and 
I  need  not  say  that  the  loss  was  theirs.  His  lofty  indiffer¬ 
ence  to  what  other  men  in  the  profession  were  doing  was,  of 
course,  hard  to  hear.  If  it  was  regarded  as  a  pose,  never  was 
there  a  graver  mistake.  He  was  incapable  of  posing.  It  was, 
however,  a  part  of  a  settled  and  consciously  adopted  policy. 
When  he  was  an  apprentice  in  Bufford’s  lithograph  shop  in 
Boston,  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  he  said  to  J.  Foxcroft  Cole : 
“  If  a  man  wants  to  be  an  artist,  he  must  never  look  at  pic¬ 
tures.” 

The  adverse  criticisms  on  his  work  may  be  summed  up  in 
a  few  quotations  from  the  writings  of  three  critics.  Mr.  Isham 1 
speaks  of  Homer’s  “  ignorance  of  or  indifference  to  what 
other  men  have  done  before.”  But  the  rest  of  the  sentence 
shows  such  a  keen  realization  on  Mr.  Isham’s  part  of  the 

1  The  History  of  American  Painting,  by  Samuel  Isham.  New  York  :  The 
Macmillan  Company,  1905. 


12 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


advantages  of  that  ignorance  or  indifference,  that  the  com- 
ment,  taken  in  its  entirety,  amounts  to  a  complete  aesthetic 
justification  of  the  painter’s  ignorance  or  indifference.  In¬ 
deed,  Mr.  Isham’s  judicial  estimate  of  the  peculiar  artistic 
merits  to  be  found  in  certain  of  Homer’s  pictures  wherein 
“things  which  have  been  generally  accepted  as  impossible 
of  representation  ”  have  been  admirably  achieved,  seems  to 
be  a  virtual  vindication  of  ignorance.  I  do  not,  however,  ac¬ 
cept  this  unpleasant  word,  in  connection  with  Homer’s  men¬ 
tal  attitude  towards  the  works  of  other  men.  He  was  not 
ignorant  concerning  what  other  men  had  done;  and  if  he 
was  indifferent,  as  we  have  every  reason  for  supposing  he 
was,  it  was  because  he  found  Nature  so  much  more  interest¬ 
ing  and  the  study  of  it  so  much  more  profitable  for  his  own 
purposes.  He  did  not  turn  his  back  on  the  traditions  of  the 
art  of  painting  because  of  any  feeling  of  disdain,  but  in  ac¬ 
cordance  with  a  deep-seated  policy  and  purpose,  and  that 
policy  and  purpose  were  worked  out  with  triumphant  suc¬ 
cess. 

Mrs.  Van  Rensselaer  1  alludes  to  Homer’s  early  pictures  as 
crude,  harsh,  and  awkward,  but  admits  that  there  was  the  true 
breath  of  life  in  them.  Like  Mr.  Isham,  her  animadversion 
has  the  advantage  of  suggesting  its  own  rejoinder.  For  who 
would  not  pardon  a  good  deal  of  crudity,  harshness,  and 
awkwardness  in  any  picture,  provided  it  had  the  true  breath 
of  life  in  it?  The  critic  should  beware  of  the  error  of  looking 
for  drawing-room  graces  and  refinements  in  a  man  whose  art 
is  concerned  with  larger  and  more  universal  interests.  I  was 
once  in  a  picture  gallery  where  a  fine  Millet  was  on  exhibi¬ 
tion,  and  heard  a  solemn  person  say  :  “  How  much  more  in- 

1  Six  Portraits,  by  Mrs.  Schuyler  Van  Rensselaer.  Boston  and  New  York: 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1894. 


PORTRAIT  OF  WINSLOW 
HOMER  AT  THE  AGE 
OF  FORTY-TWO 
From  a  photograph  taken  by 
Sarony  in  1878.  Courtesy 
of  Mr.  Charles  S.  Homer 


PORTRAIT  OF  WINSLOW 
HOMER  AT  ABOUT  THE 
AGE  OF  TH I RTY-FOUR 
Courtesy  of  the  New  York 
Herald 


A  FAMILY  GROUP:  THE  HOMERS  AT 
PROUT’S  NECK 

From  a  photograph  taken  in  i8q6.  ( Charles  Savage 
Homer,  Senior,  Charles  Savage  Homer,  Junior, 
Winslow  Homer,  Arthur  B.  Homer, 
Arthur  P.  Homer,  Charles  L.  Homer ) 


' 


THE  ARTIST  AND  THE  MAN  13 

teresting  Millet’s  paintings  would  have  been  if  he  had  painted 
a  better  class  of  people  !  ” 

Leila  Mechlin,1  writing  of  Homer’s  oil  paintings,  has  said 
that  “there  is  none  who,  from  the  technical  standpoint,  com¬ 
monly  paints  more  hatefully  than  he.”  Again,  she  has  said : 
“Apparently  the  mode  of  delivery  does  not  concern  him  be¬ 
yond  the  point  of  sincerity  and  truth.”  And  again  :  “  In  his 
method  of  rendering  Mr.  Homer  outrages  the  strongest  convic¬ 
tions  of  perhaps  nine  tenths  of  the  present-day  painters.”  I  dis¬ 
sent  most  emphatically  from  each  and  all  of  these  assumptions. 
The  charge  of  painting  “hatefully”  cannot  be  taken  seri¬ 
ously  :  this  is  one  of  those  things  that  one  would  have  wished 
to  express  otherwise.  Yet  beneath  the  infelicity  of  the  ad¬ 
verb  there  is  a  real  censure,  and  the  expression  of  a  real  dis¬ 
like,  which  is  to  be  regretted.  One  man’s  method  of  painting 
differs  from  another’s,  as  one  man’s  handwriting  differs  from 
another’s,  but  to  assert  that  this  method  is  the  right  one  and 
that  the  wrong  one  is  to  perpetrate  a  critical  puerility.  As 
for  the  mode  of  delivery,  why  should  it  concern  him  or  any 
one  “beyond  the  point  of  sincerity  and  truth”?  It  would 
be  difficult  to  specify  any  convictions  regarding  methods  of 
painting  which  would  be  agreed  upon  by  nine  tenths  of  the 
present-day  painters,  but  even  were  this  possible,  it  would  by 
no  means  follow  that  their  technical  standpoint  was  the  only 
tenable  one,  or  that  it  would  be  incumbent  upon  a  Winslow 
Homer  to  conform  to  it.  The  assumption  here  is  that  there 
is  one  correct  and  orthodox  method  of  workmanship  in  paint¬ 
ing,  but  I  am  sure  that  Miss  Mechlin  is  too  intelligent  to  be 
willing  to  go  on  record  as  holding  any  such  view  as  that. 

In  painting,  as  in  other  fields  of  effort,  results  are  what 
count,  and  all  honorable  means  are  open  to  the  worker.  More 
1  Winslow  Homer,  by  Leila  Mechlin.  The  International  Studio,  June,  1908. 


14 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


than  in  most  lines  of  human  activity,  in  the  art  of  the  painter 
is  it  true  that  the  tree  is  known  by  its  fruit.  Moreover,  it  is 
impossible  to  lay  down  a  hard  and  fast  line  of  demarcation 
between  the  mode  of  expression  and  the  thing  expressed,  as 
we  see  it  in  the  finished  work.  Therefore,  if  the  result  is 
satisfactory,  if  the  effect  intended  is  produced,  if  the  picture 
has  power  and  veracity,  nobility  and  authority,  it  is  idle  to 
scrutinize  the  brushwork  to  see  whether  it  has  been  done  in 
accordance  with  any  individual’s  or  school’s  notions  of  the 
best  ways  and  means.  For  in  these  things  the  painter,  if  he 
be  worth  any  notice  at  all,  is  a  law  unto  himself. 

Homer’s  personal  character  was  inevitably  embodied  in 
his  works.  He  had  an  insurmountable  aversion  to  the  kind 
of  publicity  which  concerns  itself  with  personal  matters,  and 
indeed  the  intensity  of  his  feeling  on  this  subject  amounted 
to  eccentricity.  The  isolation  of  his  life  at  Prout’s  Neck  for 
the  last  twenty-seven  years  was  significant  of  the  mental  at¬ 
titude  that  his  temperament  imposed  upon  him  with  respect 
to  society.  He  was  from  his  earliest  youth  jealous  of  his  in¬ 
dependence,  and  he  guarded  it  with  instinctive  vigilance 
against  intrusion.  It  was  neither  chance  nor  design  that  led 
him  to  pass  so  much  of  his  time  in  solitude  ;  it  was  his  own 
obedience  to  the  laws  of  his  nature.  Exceptional  men  are 
justified  in  adopting  an  exceptional  mode  of  life,  and  the 
artist  has  the  right  to  surround  himself  with  safeguards  against 
all  manner  of  interruptions,  distractions,  and  frictions,  which 
may  impair  his  capacity  for  sustained  work.  He  has  to  be 
his  own  judge  as  to  the  means  to  this  end.  If  his  work  is  of 
paramount  importance,  all  minor  interests  must  yield  to  it. 
But  the  solitude  of  Winslow  Homer  was  never  irksome  to 
him :  he  had  resources  within  himself.  The  sea  was  there. 
He  tended  his  little  garden.  He  made  frequent  journeys  to 


THE  ARTIST  AND  THE  MAN 


i5 


the  Adirondacks,  to  Canada,  to  Nassau,  to  Florida,  and  his 
mind  was  always  full  of  projects  for  work. 

He  was,  probably,  all  his  life,  more  or  less  of  a  problem, 
even  to  the  friends  who  thought  they  knew  him  best.  Most 
of  us  need  human  companionship ;  he  appeared  to  feel  no 
need  for  it.  He  was,  in  a  sense,  self-sufficient.  He  was  some¬ 
times  brusque  in  his  manner,  but  he  never  was  intentionally 
rude  or  unkind.  He  never  said  a  harsh  thing  without  quickly 
repenting  it  and  offering  the  amende  honorable.  Beneath  the 
crust  of  reticence,  indifference,  and  coldness,  there  was  a 
fund  of  genuine  kindness,  which  extended  to  the  humblest 
of  his  acquaintances.  He  would  go  out  of  his  way  to  show 
attention  and  courtesy  to  the  most  insignificant  persons,  sur¬ 
prising  and  touching  them  by  the  evident  sincerity  of  his 
interest  in  them.  Instances  of  his  stealthy  manner  of  doing 
good  to  poor  and  sick  persons  are  numerous.  He  took  ex¬ 
traordinary  pains  not  to  let  his  left  hand  know  what  his  right 
hand  was  doing. 

There  was  an  intemperate  old  man  living  in  Scarboro, 
whose  wife  finally  left  him,  and  who  became  such  an  in¬ 
veterate  victim  of  alcoholism,  that  he  could  get  no  regular 
employment,  because  no  one  could  rely  upon  him.  He  lived 
miserably,  alone,  in  a  hut,  and  there  seemed  to  be  no  hope 
and  no  future  for  him.  Now,  just  at  the  time  when  it  seemed 
to  this  outcast  that  the  world  had  no  more  use  for  him,  and 
that  all  men  despised  him,  Winslow  Homer  gave  him  some 
work  to  do,  —  odd  chores  about  the  garden,  say,  and  he  also 
taught  him  to  pose  as  a  model.  In  some  mysterious  way  the 
influence  of  Homer  over  this  man  became  so  strong,  that  it 
seemed  as  if  he  could  do  what  he  liked  with  him ;  and  the 
poor  old  sinner  was  so  grateful  and  so  loyal,  that  he  would 
have  gladly  laid  down  his  life  for  his  friend.  He  did  more 


i6 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


than  that,  —  he  succeeded  in  keeping  sober  whenever  he 
was  working  for  Homer,  a  miracle  of  self-control. 

Another  instance  will  serve  to  demonstrate  that  there  was 
a  beautiful  side  of  Winslow  Homer’s  character  which  the 
world  never  knew.  One  of  his  nephews,  hard  hit  by  a  finan¬ 
cial  disaster,  and  too  proud  to  ask  for  aid  so  long  as  he  had 
a  pair  of  strong  arms  to  work  with,  had  gone  to  Wilmington, 
Delaware,  in  1900,  and  got  a  job  at  ten  dollars  a  week.  As 
long  as  he  had  his  health,  that  was  enough  to  support  him, 
but  he  fell  sick,  and,  what  with  doctors’  bills  and  the  long 
enforced  loss  of  wages,  he  was  near  being  in  a  very  tight 
sort  of  place.  Still,  he  did  not  let  his  people  know  anything 
about  his  condition,  and  one  day  he  was  very  much  aston¬ 
ished  to  receive  a  letter  bearing  a  Florida  postmark  and  run¬ 
ning  as  follows :  — 

“  Dear - ,  — No  thanks  for  the  enclosed. 

Uncle  Winslow.” 

“  The  enclosed  ”  was  a  substantial  check,  which  was  enough 
to  pay  off  the  young  man’s  debts  and  set  him  squarely  on 
his  feet.  I  leave  the  reader  to  imagine  whether  that  youth 
loved  and  honored  the  uncle.  In  telling  me  of  it,  he  said, 
with  the  characteristic  terseness  of  the  Homers,  “  It  was  like 
him.  A  kinder  man  never  walked  the  earth.” 

Another  incident  remains  to  be  recorded  which  serves  to 
show  this  tender  and  beautiful  side  of  his  character  in  a  new 
light.  A  lady  living  in  New  York,  who  was  afflicted  by  an 
incurable  malady,  and  who  had  seen  some  of  his  pictures  at 
one  of  the  loan  exhibitions  of  the  Union  League  Club,  was 
deeply  desirous  to  possess  one  of  his  Prout’s  Neck  subjects, 
but,  feeling  that  she  could  not  perhaps  afford  to  pay  the  full 


WINSLOW  HOMER  AND  HIS  FATHER  AND  HIS 
DOG  SAM 

From  a  photograph  taken  at  Prout’s  Neck  by  S.  Towle. 
Courtesy  of  Mr.  C.  S.  Homer 


A  GOOD  CATCH:  WINSLOW  AND  CHARLES  S 
HOMER  RETURNING  FROM  A  DAY’S  FISH¬ 
ING 

From  a  photograph.  Courtesy  of  Mr.  Charles  S.  Homer 


■ 

rj  -  :;.e  . 

21 H  avj.  33MTA3  81 H  GMA  A3M0H  WOJ8MIW 
MAS  ooa 

.siojoA  Z  vfi  t'tooYi  to  «*$«A  a 

•tamoH  .A  .0  .nlA  \o  icMVwojjjj 


8  SSLIHAHD  QMA  W0J2MIW  tHDTAD  GOOD  A 
_H8T8!  STAG  A  M05I3  OMIMHUT35!  H3MGH 

OKI 

- 

•wmoft  .A  r  a\1  \o  ©  wwa 

- 


THE  ARTIST  AND  THE  MAN 


17 


price  for  it,  she  resolved  to  write  to  the  artist,  and  frankly  to 
lay  before  him  the  passionate  admiration  she  entertained  for 
his  work,  her  unfortunate  situation,  and  the  yearning  of  her 
heart  to  own  a  Winslow  Homer  before  she  died.  It  appears 
that  she  had  been  born  in  Maine,  and  her  longing  for  a  pic¬ 
ture  of  that  rugged  coast  where  she  had  spent  her  childhood 
made  her  bold  enough  to  address  a  personal  appeal  to  the 
artist.  Her  letter  was  for  some  months  unanswered,  but  at 
last  a  letter  came,  accompanied  by  three  sketches  of  the 
Maine  coast,  which  Homer  presented  to  her  with  his  com¬ 
pliments,  making  light  of  his  generosity  by  saying  that  he 
was  “  quite  through  with  them.”  His  letter  was  as  follows :  — 

Scarboro,  Maine,  Sept.  14,  1906. 

Mrs.  Grace  K.  Curtis, 

Dear  Madam,  —  I  have  at  last  received  your  request  of 
last  winter.  As  I  am  never  here  after  Nov.  1st  until  the  next 
spring,  about  May,  and  as  I  never  have  my  mail  sent  to  me, 
I  missed  receiving  your  letter. 

I  now  send  to  you  with  my  compliments  three  sketches  of 
the  Maine  coast.  I  am  quite  through  with  them  and  I  take 
pleasure  in  presenting  them  to  you. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Winslow  Homer. 

Two  weeks  later  he  wrote  again :  — 

Scarboro,  Maine,  Sept.  27,  1906. 

Mrs.  Grace  K.  Curtis, 

Dear  Madam,  —  I  consider  myself  very  much  honored 
by  the  receipt  of  this  beautiful  Portrait.  It  was  delayed  at  the 
station  for  my  signature  (four  miles  from  my  home).  I  shall 
treasure  it  highly,  and  I  am  so  glad  to  have  for  a  few  mo- 


i8 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


ments  diverted  your  thoughts  from  the  unfortunate  condition 
that  you  mention  in  regard  to  your  health. 

Yours  respectfully, 

Winslow  Homer. 

The  next  letter,  five  months  later,  was  addressed  to  the 
lady’s  husband,  and  runs  thus  :  — 

February  23,  1907. 

Mr.  Sidney  W.  Curtis, 

My  DEAR  Sir,  —  I  appreciate  your  attention  in  calling 
on  me,  and  I  sincerely  thank  Mrs.  Curtis  for  sending  me 
these  fine  grapes.  It  is  now  fifteen  days  since  I  sprained  my 
ankle  very  badly.  It  will  take  quite  a  long  time  to  fully  re¬ 
cover  its  use.  I  have  been  downstairs  only  twice,  but  am 
improving  rapidly ;  in  the  meantime  I  do  not  feel  like  receiv¬ 
ing  any  company.  When  I  do,  I  will  with  pleasure  let  you 
know  and  make  an  appointment. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Winslow  Homer. 

“  I  am  so  glad  —  ”  These  heartfelt  words  of  sympathy  tell 
the  whole  story.  They  reveal 

that  best  portion  of  a  good  man’s  life. 

His  little,  nameless,  unremembered  acts 
Of  kindness  and  of  love. 

Winslow  Homer  liked  the  society  of  common  people,  the 
working  classes,  the  rough,  homely,  uneducated  folk,  better 
than  that  of  the  “nice  people.”  His  old  comrade,  Joseph  E. 
Baker,  speaking  of  the  summer  that  he  passed  at  Gloucester 
and  Annisquam  in  1880,  remarked  :  “  He  knew  plenty  of 
nice  people,  but  he  associated  with  two  fishermen,  and  pre¬ 
ferred  their  company.”  An  amusing  instance  of  his  fondness 


THE  ARTIST  AND  THE  MAN 


19 


for  the  society  of  plain  people  is  best  given  in  the  very  words 
of  another  informant :  — 

“  Old  - was  a  butcher,  who  used  to  come  around  to 

Prout’s  Neck  with  his  wagon,  and  Winslow  Homer  bought 
chickens  and  so  forth  from  him.  Now,  you  know,  Homer 
would  never  let  any  one  criticise  his  paintings,  even  if  he  let 
any  one  in  the  studio  at  all,  but  it  is  a  fact  that  he  would 

have  old - in  there  sometimes  a  whole  hour  at  a  time, 

sitting  and  smoking  with  him,  and  he  would  let  him  tear  his 
pictures  all  to  pieces.” 

I  have  an  idea  that  the  butcher  was  not  so  incisive  a  critic 
as  his  profession  would  seem  to  indicate  he  might  be. 

Winslow  Homer  was  passionately  fond  of  flowers.  He 
had  a  garden  at  Prout’s  Neck,  and  he  built  a  high  fence  all 
around  it  so  that  no  one  could  see  him  when  he  was  in  it. 
He  cultivated  old-fashioned  flowers,  such  as  English  prim¬ 
roses,  cinnamon  pinks,  etc.  He  also  raised  vegetables  for 
his  own  table.  When  any  one  was  sick,  he  took  great  pains 
to  send  flowers  daily.  His  sister-in-law  had  a  tedious  illness 
one  summer,  and  every  morning  a  quaint  nosegay  of  old- 
fashioned  flowers  came  to  the  door,  borne  by  the  artist  in 
person ;  in  fact,  he  came  twice  a  day  to  ask  after  her  health, 
and  the  morning  bouquet  was  never  forgot.  If  he  went  to 
make  a  call  upon  a  lady,  —  a  rare  event,  —  he  always  made 
it  a  point  to  carry  a  nosegay  from  his  garden  for  his  hostess. 

To  those  who  were  privileged  to  know  him  he  was  the 
soul  of  fine  feeling  and  gentle  courtesy.  He  did  not  wear 
his  heart  upon  his  sleeve,  but  there  was  not  a  particle  of  mis¬ 
anthropy  in  his  nature.  He  was  so  constituted  that  any  kind 
of  feigning  was  positively  impossible  to  him.  There  was  no 
humbug  in  him  or  about  him,  and  he  could  not  tolerate  any 
kind  of  falseness.  He  was  in  every  respect  a  gentleman,  and 


20 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


he  possessed  a  strong  sense  of  honor.  He  was  himself  under 
all  circumstances,  —  genuine,  natural,  unaffected.  Self-respect 
and  independence  were  among  his  most  noticeable  traits  of 
character. 

Homer  was  an  indefatigable  worker.  It  is  hardly  an  ex¬ 
aggeration  to  say  that  he  worked  all  the  time.  He  was  al¬ 
ways  planning  pictures  and  drawings,  always  looking  for 
subjects,  always  absorbed  in  his  work,  which  was  his  very 
life.  Somebody  once  asked  him  where  he  got  his  talent. 
“  Talent !  ”  he  said.  “  There’s  no  such  thing  as  talent.  What 
they  call  talent  is  nothing  but  the  capacity  for  doing  continu¬ 
ous  hard  work  in  the  right  way.”  This  definition  is  at  least 
more  exact  than  the  often-quoted  maxim  about  genius  which 
runs  very  much  to  the  same  effect. 

To  his  other  personal  characteristics  Homer  added  a  very 
marked  sense  of  humor.  He  had  a  quaint,  solemn  way  of 
saying  the  most  whimsical  and  delightful  things,  and  he 
could  utter  stinging  sarcasms  without  a  smile.  His  sense  of 
humor  kept  him  from  taking  himself  or  anybody  else  too 
seriously.  He  detested  hypocrisy  and  pretence  of  all  kinds, 
and  his  preference  for  the  society  of  humble  folk  was  mainly 
due  to  their  plain,  blunt,  and  candid  character  and  conversa¬ 
tion.  He  rarely  talked  about  himself  or  his  work.  His  art 
was  sacred  to  him  ;  it  was  his  religion.  Whether  the  public 
liked  his  pictures  or  not  seemed  to  be  a  matter  of  indiffer¬ 
ence  to  him.  During  his  early  professional  life  in  New  York 
his  work  was  sometimes  severely  criticised,  but  this  appeared 
to  make  no  impression  upon  him  whatever.  He  was  con¬ 
scious  of  his  own  powers,  but  he  was  not  moved  either  by 
praise  or  censure.  The  most  enthusiastic  compliments  from 
his  friends  seldom  elicited  anything  more  than  a  grunt  from 
him. 


AN  IMPROMPTU  LECTURE  ON  ART:  WINSLOW 
HOMER  AND  HIS  MAN-SERVANT  LEWIS 
From  a  photograph 


PORTRAIT  OF  WINSLOW  HOMER  IN  HIS  STU¬ 
DIO  AT  PROUT’S  NECK,  SCARBORO,  MAINE 
From  a  photograph.  Taken  while  he  was  painting  “  The 
Gulf  Stream” 


WOJ2HIV7  -:THA  MO  3>1UT03J  HA 

g}.W3J  TMAV5I3 2-HAM  8IH  CIHA  J13M0H 

»  *5*®  A 


-UT8  2II-I  HI  H3M0H  WOJ2MIW  30  TIA3TH0CI-. 
2HIAM  ,030251/02  ,HD3H  2TU05O  TA  OIU 

a  AT  “  *«&««&  tms  s'A  Oi4s  waAoT  •  .  . 


CHAPTER  II 


EARLY  DAYS  IN  BOSTON  AND  CAMBRIDGE 
1836-1859.  To  the  Age  of  23 

The  Homer  Family  —  Winslow  Homer’s  Parents  —  His  Birthplace —  Re¬ 
moval  to  Cambridge —  School  Days  — Juvenile  Drawings  —  “  Beetle  and 
Wedge” — Apprenticed  to  Bufford — First  Drawings  Published  —  Studio 
in  Boston. 

THE  Boston  of  1836  was  a  snug  little  seaport  town, 
confined  for  the  most  part  to  the  peninsula  between 
the  harbor  and  the  Charles  River,  a  picturesque 
site,  with  its  three  hills  and  its  irregular  water-front.  Well- 
to-do  persons  still  lived  at  the  North  End  and  the  old  West 
End  on  the  Northern  side  of  Beacon  Hill.  In  the  network  of 
narrow  and  crooked  streets  lying  between  Faneuil  Hall  and 
Causeway  Street  was  situated  the  modest  dwelling-house  in 
which  Charles  Savage  Homer  and  his  family  lived,  No.  25 
Friend  Street,  and  there,  on  February  24,  1836,  Winslow 
Homer  was  born.  To-day  the  place  is  a  grimy,  noisy  busi¬ 
ness  thoroughfare,  in  the  heart  of  the  downtown  trade  quarter, 
near  the  North  Station.  All  the  old  residences  have  disap¬ 
peared,  and  on  the  spot  where  No.  25  Friend  Street  stood 
in  1836  there  is  now  a  plain  five-story  brick  business  build¬ 
ing. 

The  family  was  of  good  old  New  England  stock.  The 
Homers  have  lived  in  Massachusetts  for  more  than  two  hun¬ 
dred  and  fifty  years.  The  first  member  of  the  family  to 
come  to  America,  Captain  John  Homer,  was  an  Englishman, 
who  crossed  the  Atlantic  in  his  own  ship,  landed  at  Boston 


22 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  settled  there. 
From  him  was  descended  the  family  to  which  Winslow 
Homer  belonged.  Eleazer  and  Mary  (Bartlett)  Homer,  Wins¬ 
low  Homer’s  grandfather  and  grandmother,  were  living  in  a 
house  which  stood  at  the  corner  of  Hanover  and  Union 
Streets,  Boston,  in  1809,  when  Charles  Savage  Homer, 
Winslow’s  father,  was  born.  The  date  of  Charles  Savage 
Homer’s  birth  was  March  7,  1809.  The  homestead  in  Han¬ 
over  Street  was  a  comfortable  house,  with  a  garden.  Charles 
Savage  Homer  married  Henrietta  Maria  Benson,  the  daugh¬ 
ter  of  John  and  Sarah  (Buck)  Benson,  who  was  born  in 
Bucksport,  Maine,  in  1809.  Her  mother’s  father  was  the 
man  for  whom  the  town  of  Bucksport,  Maine,  was  named. 
Both  the  Homers  and  the  Bensons  were  vigorous,  sturdy, 
long-lived  people.  Both  of  Winslow  Homer’s  grandfathers 
lived  to  be  over  eighty-five,  and  his  father  died  at  the  age  of 
eighty-nine. 

Winslow  was  the  second  of  three  sons.  His  elder  brother, 
Charles  Savage  Homer,  junior,  was  his  senior  by  two  years, 
and  his  younger  brother,  Arthur  B.,  was  born  five  years 
after  Winslow’s  birth.  Among  the  boys’  relations  was  a 
sailor,  their  father’s  brother,  James  Homer,  known  to  them 
as  Uncle  Jim.  With  this  uncle,  however,  Winslow  never  had 
any  intercourse  worth  mentioning.  Uncle  Jim  owned  a 
barque,  and  made  voyages  to  Cuba  and  other  West  Indian 
islands.  Winslow  Homer,  speaking  of  his  ancestry,  once  re¬ 
marked,  in  a  tone  of  dry  humor,  that  he  had  been  looking 
up  his  family  tree,  but  when  he  got  back  two  or  three  gen¬ 
erations  he  discovered  that  one  of  his  ancestors  was  a  pirate, 
and  he  did  not  dare  to  look  any  farther.  This  did  not  refer  to 
his  Uncle  Jim,  however,  but  to  his  Grandfather  Benson,  and 
the  dim  legend  about  his  being  a  pirate  rests  upon  such  a 


IN  BOSTON  AND  CAMBRIDGE 


23 


feeble  foundation  that  it  must  be  dismissed  as  a  very  foggy 
sort  of  yarn.  John  Benson  was  neither  a  pirate  nor  a  sailor ; 
he  was  just  a  simple  Down-East  storekeeper. 

Winslow  Homer’s  father  was  a  hardware  merchant.  His 
firm  was  that  of  Homer,  Gray  &  Co.,  importers  of  hardware, 
13  Dock  Square  (now  Adams  Square).  Later  the  firm  name 
was  changed  to  Holmes  &  Homer,  and  again  to  Homer  & 
Layton,  and  finally  it  became  Charles  Savage  Homer.  The 
store  was  moved  from  Dock  Square  to  Merchants’  Row.  In 
1849,  the  year  of  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California,  Mr. 
Homer  sold  out  his  hardware  business,  and  made  a  journey 
to  California  by  the  way  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  in  the  inter¬ 
est  of  the  Fremont  Mining  Company.  He  loaded  a  vessel  at 
Boston  with  mining  machinery,  and  sent  it  around  Cape 
Horn  to  the  Pacific  Coast ;  he  proceeded  by  the  shorter 
route  himself,  and  was  gone  two  years  ;  but  the  venture  was 
unsuccessful.  When  he  arrived  in  California  he  found  that 
the  claim  of  the  company  in  which  he  was  interested  had 
been  “jumped,”  and  his  efforts  to  regain  possession  of  the 
property  were  unavailing.  It  is  recalled  that  when  he  set  out 
for  the  Pacific  Coast  his  baggage  was  impressive  in  its  new¬ 
ness,  brass-bound  trunks  eliciting  the  admiration  of  the  boys, 
but  when  he  came  back  two  years  later  his  gripsack  was 
tied  with  a  string.  Mr.  Homer  is  described  by  his  contempo¬ 
raries  as  having  been  a  handsome  man,  of  dignified  pre¬ 
sence.  Mrs.  Homer  was  a  gracious,  gentle  lady,  who  had  a 
pretty  talent  for  painting  flower  pieces  in  watercolors.  So 
interested  was  she  in  this  work  that  she  took  lessons  in 
painting  after  she  was  married.  Many  of  her  flower  pieces, 
which  are  altogether  excellent  as  studies,  are  still  piously 
preserved  by  her  sons. 

During  the  years  that  the  Charles  Savage  Homer  family 


24 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


lived  in  Boston  and  Cambridge,  in  the  first  halt  of  the  nine¬ 
teenth  century,  they  were  a  migratory  people,  after  the 
American  fashion,  and  lived  in  seven  different  houses.  After 
leaving  the  Grandfather  Homer  homestead  in  Hanover 
Street,  at  the  time  of  his  marriage,  Charles  Savage  Homer 
established  himself  in  Howard  Street,  where  his  oldest  son 
was  born  in  1834.  The  removal  to  No.  25  Friend  Street  soon 
followed.  Both  of  these  locations  were  convenient  with  re¬ 
spect  to  Mr.  Homer’s  place  of  business  in  Dock  Square.  But 
from  the  Friend  Street  house,  not  long  after  Winslow’s  birth, 
in  1836,  the  Homers  moved  to  a  new  home  at  No.  7  Bulfinch 
Street,  near  Bowdoin  Square.  There  the  youngest  son  was 
born,  in  1841,  and  there  the  family  lived  until  Winslow  was 
six  years  old,  when  they  moved  to  Cambridge,  in  1842.  This 
move  was  made  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  giving  the  three 
boys  educational  advantages ;  but,  as  it  turned  out,  only  the 
oldest  son,  Charles  S.  Homer,  Junior,  proved  to  be  of  suffi¬ 
cient  tenacity  as  a  student  to  go  to  college.  He  entered 
Harvard,  and  was  graduated  from  the  Lawrence  Scientific 
School,  with  the  degree  of  S.  B.,  in  1855.  The  two  younger 
boys  were  destined  to  acquire  their  knowledge  for  the  most 
part  outside  of  the  usual  academic  channels. 

The  new  home  in  Cambridge  was  in  Main  Street  (now 
Massachusetts  Avenue),  in  a  big  wooden  house  with  a  pseu¬ 
do-classical  portico,  opposite  the  end  of  Dana  Street,  on  the 
south  side  of  the  street.  That  part  of  Old  Cambridge  was  in 
1842  not  radically  different  from  what  it  is  now,  barring  the 
recent  innovations  in  the  way  of  underground  transit ;  but  a 
little  farther  out  it  had  all  the  characteristics  of  a  roomy, 
umbrageous,  overgrown  village  ;  and  the  opportunities  for 
fishing,  boating,  and  other  rural  sports  dear  to  the  heart  of 
boyhood,  were  eagerly  seized  by  the  Homer  boys.  The  early 


wiiNbLUW  HOMER  AND  HIS  STONE  WALL 

From  a  photograph  taken  at  Prout's  Neck,  December  2,  IQ02.  On  the 
back  of  the  original  print  is  written,  in  the  artist's  own  handwrit¬ 
ing.  Photo  of  stone  wall  built  by  Winslow  Homer.  Taken 


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IN  BOSTON  AND  CAMBRIDGE 


25 


years  of  Winslow’s  life,  which  were  passed  here,  until  he 
went  to  work  at  BufTord’s,  were  always  looked  back  upon 
with  pleasure  in  after  years,  as  a  period  of  joyous  freedom, 
and  we  may  be  sure  that  the  beautiful  surroundings  had 
their  part  in  the  formation  of  the  boy’s  tastes  and  tendencies. 
From  the  Massachusetts  Avenue  house  the  Homers  shortly 
moved  to  a  more  comfortable  home  in  Garden  Street,  next 
door  to  the  Fay  house,  where  now  stands  the  principal 
building  of  Radcliffe  College,  facing  the  spacious  Common, 
and  very  near  the  Washington  Elm. 

Winslow  was  now  sent  to  the  Washington  Grammar 
School,  in  Brattle  Street,  near  Harvard  Square.  His  school¬ 
mates  remember  him  as  a  quiet,  sedate,  undemonstrative 
lad,  with  straight  dark  brown  hair  and  dark  brown  eyes.  He 
was,  even  as  early  as  1847,  when  he  was  only  eleven  years 
old,  fond  of  drawing  sketches.  Thirty  years  later  he  told 
his  friends  that  he  had  still  kept  a  heap  of  crayon  draw¬ 
ings  of  his  own,  made  in  the  Cambridge  school-days,  each 
drawing  being  carefully  signed  and  dated.  The  most  unusual 
part  of  the  proceeding,  however,  for  a  boy  of  eleven,  was  that 
he  actually  drew  from  life,  and  did  not  make  copies  of  other 
pictures.  Among  the  juvenile  drawings  which  date  from 
about  this  period  are  “A  Man  with  a  Wheelbarrow”  which 
was  drawn  from  a  living  model,  and  “  The  Beetle  and 
Wedge,”  or,  as  the  youthful  artist  himself  called  it,  “  The 
Youth  of  C.  S.  H.,”  representing  a  group  of  four  school¬ 
boys  playing  that  impish  game,  which  requires  four  partici¬ 
pants,  one  to  play  the  part  of  the  wedge,  one  to  serve  as  the 
beetle,  and  the  other  two  to  bring  the  beetle  and  w  edge  into 
violent  collision.  This  drawing,  which  is  the  earliest  work  of 
Winslow  Homer  now  in  existence,  is  a  very  remarkable 
piece  of  work  for  a  boy  of  eleven  to  have  produced,  as  will 


2  6 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


be  acknowledged  by  every  one.  At  the  lower  right-hand 
corner  of  the  design  a  “  key  to  the  picture,”  introduced  evi¬ 
dently  as  an  afterthought,  identifies  the  four  boy  models. 
The  two  bigger  boys  are  Charles  Homer  and  George  Ben¬ 
son,  a  cousin.  The  hapless  beetle  is  little  Arthur  Homer, 
then  nine  years  of  age,  and  the  wedge  is  Ned  Wyeth.  To 
compose  a  group  of  four  figures  and  to  draw  them  from  life, 
with  a  broadly  suggested  landscape  background  of  hills,  is 
certainly  one  of  the  most  astonishing  manifestations  of 
artistic  precocity  on  record  ;  and  we  note  in  this  juvenile 
effort  the  forerunner  of  the  picture  of  “  Snap  the  Whip  ”  and 
several  similar  subjects. 

“  His  father  encouraged  his  leaning  towards  art,  and  on 
one  occasion,  when  on  a  visit  to  Paris,  sent  him  a  complete 
set  of  lithographs  by  Julian — representations  of  heads,  ears, 
noses,  eyes,  faces,  houses,  trees,  everything  that  a  young 
draughtsman  might  fancy  trying  his  hand  at  —  and  also 
lithographs  of  animals  by  Victor  Adam,  which  the  son  hast¬ 
ened  to  make  profitable  use  of.  At  school  he  drew  maps  and 
illustrated  text-books  stealthily  but  systematically.”  1 

On  the  strength  of  the  suggestion  conveyed  in  this  last 
statement,  Mr.  McSpadden 2  draws  a  fanciful  word  picture  of 
the  scene  in  the  Cambridge  school-room,  when  young  Homer 
is  discovered  making  surreptitious  sketches  on  the  margins 
of  his  text-books,  and  is  ignominiously  sent  into  the  dunce 
corner  as  a  punishment. 

In  1855,  when  Winslow  Homer  was  nineteen,  and  his  father 
was  thinking  of  trying  to  obtain  a  job  for  the  boy  as  a  sales¬ 
man  in  a  Cambridge  haberdashery,  an  unexpected  oppor- 

1  Art  Journal,  London,  August,  1878. 

2  Famous  Painters  of  America,  by  J.  Walker  McSpadden.  New  York : 
Thomas  Y.  Crowell  &  Co. 


IN  BOSTON  AND  CAMBRIDGE 


27 


tunity  arose  to  place  the  lad  as  an  apprentice  in  a  litho¬ 
grapher’s  shop  in  Boston.  Bufford,  the  proprietor  of  this 
establishment,  whose  place  of  business  was  at  the  corner  of 
Washington  and  Avon  streets,  advertised  for  a  boy  who 
must  “  have  a  taste  for  drawing.”  It  seems  that  Bufford  was 
a  friend  of  Charles  Savage  Homer,  and  a  member  of  the 
volunteer  fire  company  of  which  the  latter  was  foreman. 
Application  was  made  forthwith  to  Bufford,  and  the  boy  was 
accepted  on  trial  for  two  weeks. 

“He  suited,  and  stayed  for  two  years,  or  until  he  wras 
twenty-one.  He  suited  so  well,  indeed,  that  his  employer  re¬ 
linquished  the  bonus  of  three  hundred  dollars  usually  de¬ 
manded  of  apprentices  in  consideration  of  their  being  taught 
a  trade.  His  first  work  was  designing  title-pages  for  sheet- 
music  ordered  by  Oliver  Ditson  of  Boston,  ‘  Katy  Darling  ’ 
and  ‘  Oh,  Whistle  and  I  ’ll  Come  to  You,  my  Lad  ’  being  the 
subjects  of  his  initial  efforts  in  this  direction.  Bufford  assigned 
to  him  the  more  interesting  kinds  of  pictorial  decorations, 
leaving  such  avocations  as  card-printing  to  the  other  appren¬ 
tices.  His  most  important  triumph  at  the  lithographer’s  was 
the  designing  on  stone  of  the  portraits  of  the  entire  Senate 
of  Massachusetts.  But  his  sojourn  there  was  a  treadmill  ex¬ 
istence.  Two  years  at  that  grindstone  unfitted  him  for  fur¬ 
ther  bondage ;  and,  since  the  day  he  left  it,  he  has  called  no 
man  master.”  1 

The  other  apprentices  at  Bufford’s  shop  were  Joseph  Fox- 
croft  Cole  and  Joseph  E.  Baker.  Naturally,  Winslow  Homer 
became  very  intimate  with  these  two  comrades.  Before  the 
three  apprentices  had  been  taken  on,  Bufford  was  in  the  habit 
of  doing  most  of  his  designing  himself,  but  he  found  that  the 
boys  were  capable  of  bettering  his  efforts,  and  he  soon  turned 
1  Art  Journal ,  London,  August,  1878. 


'28 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


all  the  designing-  over  to  them.  Winslow  Homer  at  the  age 
of  nineteen  was  rather  under  the  average  height,  delicately 
built,  very  erect,  and  performed  most  of  his  work  standing, 
for  the  purpose  of  avoiding  the  tendency  to  get  round-shoul¬ 
dered.  He  had  a  thick  mass  of  dark  brown  hair,  and  hazel 
eyes.  He  seldom  showed  any  emotion,  and  was  somewhat 
stolid.  When  Bufford  found  fault  with  his  work,  he  never 
manifested  any  feeling  about  it.  His  extreme  cleverness  in 
sketching  was  noticeable  from  the  very  first.  Mr.  Baker  re¬ 
calls  that  he  made  many  quick  sketches  in  working  hours, 
and  tossed  them  on  the  floor,  where  Baker  and  Cole  some¬ 
times  picked  them  up.  He  began  to  grow  a  tiny  moustache 
and  his  first  beard.  It  was  not  the  fashion  to  shave  the  chin 
then.  His  beard  grew  in  irregular  patches,  and  he  said  of  it : 
“  My  beard  is  in  house-lots,  is  n’t  it  ?  ”  His  drawings  did  not 
always  print  well  on  the  lithographic  stone,  and  he  hated 
the  work  at  Bufford’s,  as  has  been  intimated. 

Many  a  morning  while  he  was  working  at  Bufford’s,  he 
would  rise  at  three  o’clock  and  go  out  to  Fresh  Pond  (two 
miles  distant)  to  fish  before  breakfast.  Returning  home,  he 
took  the  omnibus  for  Boston,  for  there  were  no  street  cars 
then.  He  was  obliged  to  begin  work  at  Bufford’s  at  eight 
A.  M.  Many  years  afterwards,  a  gentleman  who  was  born  in 
Cambridge  met  him  in  New  York,  and  said  to  him:  “  How 
is  it,  I  do  not  remember  ever  meeting  you  in  Cambridge,  yet 
we  must  have  been  living  there  at  the  same  time?”  “I  re¬ 
member  you,”  retorted  Homer,  “  for  you  were  ten  years  older 
than  I,  and  you  used  to  push  me  off  the  step  sometimes 
when  I  was  trying  to  hook  a  ride  on  the  omnibus  to  Boston.” 

It  was  while  he  was  working  at  Bufford’s  that  Winslow 
Homer  became  acquainted  with  a  French  wood  engraver 
named  Damereau,  who  gave  him  some  practical  notions  of 


MOUNT  WASHINGTON 
From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  W.  H.  S. 
Pearce,  Newton,  Massachusetts.  Photograph  by  Chester 
A.  Lawrence 


FEEDING  THE  CHICKENS 
From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Arthur  B. 
Homer.  Painted  at  Belmont,  Massachusetts,  about  1858. 
The  model  for  the  figure  was  the  present  owner  of  the  pic¬ 
ture.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Lawrence,  Boston 


7iOTOT/lIH2AW  T’/xlJO'  /I 


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aS  ■'■  ■  s V/-  uw\ri 

.  x'  '■■■  .  S  tA  .AMttOll 

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,  uiA  ..& vxvAx  <<xi  i\^jyr^o‘iros\cI  .yutSr:; 


IN  BOSTON  AND  CAMBRIDGE 


29 


how  to  draw  on  the  block  in  such  a  manner  as  to  suit  his 
lines  to  the  process.  This  was  a  very  essential  part  of  the 
training  for  the  work  of  an  illustrator  in  those  days.  One 
afternoon,  Homer,  with  Cole  and  Baker,  went  into  Dobson’s 
picture  gallery,  where  they  were  looking  at  a  painting  of  a 
kitchen  interior  with  figures  by  Edouard  Frere,  when  Moses 
Wight  came  in,  and  Baker  introduced  him  to  Homer.  After 
a  little,  Homer  said  :  “I  am  going  to  paint.”  Wight  asked 
him  what  particular  line  of  work  he  was  intending  to  take 
up.  He  pointed  to  Frere’s  genre  painting,  and  said  :  “  Some¬ 
thing  like  that,  only  a - sight  better.” 

When  the  two  years  of  his  apprenticeship  at  BufTord’s  were 
up,  —  on  his  twenty-first  birthday,  February  24,  1857,  —  he 
rented  a  studio  in  Winter  Street,  in  the  building  occupied  by 
“  Ballou’s  Pictorial,”  and  made  some  drawings  for  that  peri¬ 
odical.  His  first  illustration  there  was  a  sketch  of  a  street 
scene  in  Boston.  This  was  published  in  the  issue  dated  Sep¬ 
tember  12,  1857,  and  it  was  entitled  “A  Boston  Watering 
Cart.”  The  place  depicted  is  in  Summer  Street,  in  front  of 
the  store  of  C.  F.  Hovey  &  Company.  This  was  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  a  long  period  of  active  productiveness  for  the  young 
artist.  At  that  time  there  lived  in  Boston  a  conceited  and 
pompous  Frenchman  named  Paunceloup,  who  was  well 
known  to  everybody  as  a  man  about  town.  Homer  made  a 
sketch  of  him,  with  his  chest  thrown  out,  and  his  big  waxed 
moustache,  as  he  walked  down  the  street,  and  on  showing 
it  to  his  tailor,  at  once  sold  it  for  a  suit  of  clothes.  It  was  at 
about  the  same  time  that  Homer  made  a  series  of  drawings 
of  “Life  in  Harvard  College,”  one  of  these  depicting  a  foot¬ 
ball  game. 

In  1858  he  began  to  send  drawings  to  Harper  &  Brothers, 
in  New  York.  “  Harper’s  Weekly  ”  had  just  been  founded. 


30 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


Prior  to  1861,  its  illustrations  had  very  little  of  the  news 
quality,  which  later  was  to  become  its  chief  feature. 

The  first  of  his  drawings  to  appear  in  “  Harper’s  Weekly  ” 
was  “Spring  in  the  City.”  It  was  signed  W.  H.,  and  the 
date  of  its  publication  was  April  17,  1858.  This  was  another 
street  scene  in  Boston,  with  about  thirty  figures  in  the  com¬ 
position.  The  place  looks  very  much  like  the  corner  of  Tre- 
mont  and  Winter  streets.  On  May  22,  1858.  “The  Boston 
Common,”  signed  Homer  del.,  appeared.  This  was  a  view  of 
the  Beacon  Street  mall  near  the  Joy  Street  steps  and  gate, 
looking  westward.  There  were  children  at  play  in  the  fore¬ 
ground.  At  the  right,  in  the  distance,  a  glimpse  of  the  houses 
in  Beacon  Street ;  at  the  left,  the  fountain  playing  in  the  Frog- 
Pond.  There  were  many  figures.  The  next  drawing  to  make 
its  appearance  was  published  on  September  4,  1858,  and  was 
entitled  “The  Bathe  at  Newport.”  It  was  signed  Homer  del. 
There  were  about  twenty  figures  of  bathers  in  the  surf.  In  the 
background  were  some  spectators  on  the  beach.  A  row  of 
bath-houses  stood  behind  them,  and  at  the  right,  in  the  dis¬ 
tance,  were  the  cliffs. 

On  November  13,  1858,  “  Husking  the  Corn  in  New  Eng¬ 
land,”  signed  Homer  del.,  was  the  first  of  the  long  series  of  rus¬ 
tic  genre  pictures  in  black-and-white  which  so  truthfully  and 
amusingly  illustrate  the  episodes  of  farm  life.  Imagine  the 
interior  of  a  barn,  in  the  evening,  lighted  by  two  lanterns 
hung  on  a  rope  which  is  stretched  from  one  hay-mow  to  the 
other.  In  this  composition  there  are  about  forty  figures.  Near 
the  foreground  two  red  ears  of  corn  have  evidently  been  dis¬ 
covered,  for  there  are  two  couples  engaged  in  struggles  pre¬ 
liminary  to  the  kissing  which  is  de  rigueur  on  these  occasions. 
At  the  left,  a  boy  who  has  been  sitting  on  a  three-legged  stool 
has  been  upset  and  is  falling  on  his  back.  On  the  opposite 


IN  BOSTON  AND  CAMBRIDGE 


3i 


page  of  “Harper’s  Weekly”  are  supplementary  drawings  by 
Homer  depicting  “  Driving  Home  the  Corn  ”  and  “  The 
Dance  after  the  Husking.”  The  third  canto  of  Barlow’s 
poem  in  praise  of  Hasty  Pudding  elucidates  the  laws  of 
husking :  — 

The  laws  of  husking  every  wight  can  tell. 

And  sure  no  laws  he  ever  keeps  so  well  : 

For  each  red  ear  a  general  kiss  he  gains. 

With  each  smut-ear  he  soils  the  luckless  swains. 

To  “  Harper’s  Weekly  ”  for  November  27,  1858,  Homer 
contributed  four  drawings  illustrative  of  Thanksgiving  Day, 
—  “  Ways  and  Means,”  “  Arrival  at  the  Old  Home,”  “  The 
Dinner,”  and  “  The  Dance.”  On  the  next  page  was  a  poem 
called  “Our  Thanksgiving,”  describing  the  preparation,  the 
arrival,  the  dinner,  and  the  dance,  and  it  appears  obvious 
that  the  drawings  were  made  to  fit  the  verses.  Similarly,  on 
December  25,  1858,  we  have  a  series  of  four  illustrations 
appropriate  to  the  Christmas  holiday :  “  Gathering  Ever¬ 
greens,”  “The  Christmas  Tree,”  “Santa  Claus  and  His  Pre¬ 
sents,”  and  “  Christmas  Out -of- Doors.”  The  last-named 
drawing  shows  the  corner  of  Tremont  and  West  streets, 
Boston,  in  a  snowstorm,  and  there  are  twelve  figures  in  it. 

“  Skating  at  Boston,”  without  any  signature,  but  unques¬ 
tionably  drawn  by  Homer,  appeared  on  March  12,  1859.  On 
April  2,  1859,  “March  Winds,”  signed  Homer  del.,  was  an¬ 
other  Boston  street  scene,  with  about  a  dozen  figures,  and 
quite  a  generous  display  of  hosiery :  it  was  the  period  of 
hoopskirts.  “  April  Showers,”  in  the  same  issue  of  “  Harper’s 
Weekly,”  is  another  Boston  street  scene,  the  locality  being 
in  front  of  Ditson’s  music  store  in  Washington  Street.  The 
pavements  are  wet,  and  again  there  is  a  liberal  display  of  the 
ladies’  ankles.  On  August  27,  1859,  a  drawing  called  “  Au- 


32 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


gust  in  the  Country  —  The  Seashore,”  with  some  twenty 
figures,  appeared.  This  was  followed  on  September  3  by  an 
illustration  of  “  A  Cadet  Hop  at  West  Point.” 

September  24,  1859,  Homer  signed  a  double-page  engrav¬ 
ing  in  “Harper’s  Weekly”  depicting  “The  Grand  Review 
at  Camp  Massachusetts,  near  Concord,  September  9,  1859.” 
The  article  on  the  next  page  states  :  “  We  engrave  herewith 
a  fine  picture  of  Camp  Massachusetts  —  in  other  words,  the 
general  muster  of  the  Massachusetts  militia,  which  took  place 
near  Concord  on  the  7th,  8th,  and  9th  instant.  .  .  .  The  evo¬ 
lution  selected  for  illustration  by  our  artist  is  the  grand  de¬ 
tour  executed  by  the  militia  before  Governor  Banks,  General 
Wool,  and  the  magistracy  and  legislature  of  the  state.  The 
Governor  will  be  seen,  mounted  on  his  famous  Morgan  horse, 
in  the  background  of  the  picture  near  the  flagstaff.  On  his 
right  sits  General  Wool ;  around  him  are  the  Senate  and 
other  public  bodies  ;  in  his  rear  are  the  Cadets,  his  personal 
bodyguard.” 

Next  appeared  in  the  same  periodical  “  Fall  Games  —  The 
Apple  Bee,”  November  26,  1859.  This  is  an  interior  of  a  farm¬ 
house,  with  about  twenty  figures.  Everybody  is  paring  ap¬ 
ples.  In  the  centre  of  the  foreground  a  young  woman  is 
throwing  an  apple-paring  over  her  right  shoulder.  Strings  of 
dried  apples  are  hung  from  the  ceiling. 

Of  course  these  juvenile  productions  are  by  no  means 
masterpieces,  yet  any  one  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  turn 
over  the  files  of  “  Harper’s  Weekly”  for  1859,  will  instantly 
notice  one  thing  about  Homer’s  illustrations  :  they  are  dif¬ 
ferent  from  all  others,  and  possess  an  individuality  of  their 
own.  Already  he  was  his  own  man,  he  was  standing  on  his 
own  feet. 

In  the  autumn  of  1859  he  gave  up  his  Boston  studio,  said 


IN  BOSTON  AND  CAMBRIDGE 


33 


good-by  to  his  parents,  and  went  to  New  York  to  seek  his 
fortune.  He  never  returned  to  Boston  to  stay,  but  all  through 
his  life  he  visited  the  city  frequently,  and  retained  his  affec¬ 
tion  for  the  place  of  his  birth.  Nowhere  has  his  genius  met 
with  more  cordial  recognition.  And  that  recognition  was 
given  at  a  time  when  it  meant  much  to  the  artist. 


CHAPTER  III 

NEW  YORK  — THE  GREAT  WAR 
1859-1863.  JEtat.  23-27 

Studio  in  Nassau  Street — Studio  in  the  University  Building,  Washington 
Square —  Bohemian  Life —  His  Friends  — Lincoln’s  Inauguration —  McClel¬ 
lan’s  Peninsular  Campaign  —  First  Oil  Paintings  —  “The  Sharpshooter  on 
Picket  Duty  ”  —  “  Rations  ”  —  “  Defiance  ”  —  “  Home,  Sweet  Home  ” 
—  “The  Last  Goose  at  Yorktown.” 

OUITE  unknown,  upon  his  arrival  in  New  York,  in 
1859,  Homer  took  a  studio  in  Nassau  Street,  which 
he  occupied  for  about  two  years.  He  lived  in  a 
boarding-house  kept  by  Mrs.  Alexander  Cushman,  at  what 
is  now  No.  128  East  Sixteenth  street.  Living  in  the  same 
house  at  that  time  were  Alfred  C.  Howland,  the  painter,  and 
his  brother  Henry,  who  afterwards  became  Judge  Howland. 
The  old  Diisseldorf  Gallery  in  Broadway  was  then  open.  Of 
course  Homer  visited  it.  He  saw,  among  other  pictures, 
William  Page’s  “  Venus,”  painted  in  Rome,  which  was  then 
much  discussed  by  all  the  young  artists  and  art  students. 
“  What  I  remember  best,”  Homer  told  the  writer  of  the  arti¬ 
cle  in  the  “Art  Journal,”  1878,  “  is  the  smell  of  paint.  I  used 
to  love  it  in  a  picture  gallery.” 

Harper  &  Brothers  sent  for  him,  and  made  him  a  gener¬ 
ous  offer  to  enter  their  establishment  and  work  regularly  for 
them  as  an  artist.  “  I  declined  it,”  said  Homer,  “  because 
I  had  had  a  taste  of  freedom.  The  slavery  at  Bufford’s  was 
too  fresh  in  my  recollection  to  let  me  care  to  bind  myself 
again.  From  the  time  that  I  took  my  nose  off  that  litho- 


MILITARY  PASS  ISSUED  TO  WINSLOW  HOMER 
FROM  THE  PROVOST  MARSHAL’S  OFFICE 
IN  WASHINGTON,  APRIL  i,  1862 
Courtesy  of  Mr.  Arthur  B.  Homer 


iiaMOH  v/oja/nw  ot  aauaei  22A<?  yjtatijlim 

33  mo  s'jahp^am  T?,o:/om  sht  Mom 

£08 1  ,i  dimA  ,  M  OT O M I H SAW  MI 

-tamoB.  .8-  wftVtk  .'\¥v  \o 


NEW  YORK  — THE  GREAT  WAR  35 

graphic  stone,  I  have  had  no  master,  and  never  shall  have 
any.” 

By  degrees  Homer  became  acquainted  with  the  artists  of 
New  York,  and  in  1861  he  moved  to  the  old  University 
Building  in  Washington  Square,  where  several  of  the  men 
whom  he  knew  had  their  studios.  Among  the  painters 
who  were  in  the  building  at  that  time  were  Marcus  Water¬ 
man,  Alfred  Fredericks,  Edwin  White,  Eugene  Benson,  and 
W.  J.  Hennessy.  Homer’s  studio  was  in  the  tower  room,  to 
which  access  was  gained  by  climbing  a  flight  of  steep  stairs 
fashioned  like  a  step-ladder.  This  place  just  suited  his  taste. 
There  was  a  door  opening  from  the  studio  to  the  roof, 
which  was  flat,  and  protected  by  a  solid  parapet.  Later, 
when  he  had  taken  up  oil  painting  in  earnest,  he  found  the 
roof  an  excellent  place  to  pose  his  models  when  he  wished 
to  get  an  effect  of  sunlight  on  the  figures. 

There  were  some  very  jolly  evenings  in  that  studio  in  the 
sixties.  We  are  afforded  a  glimpse  of  the  life  of  Bohemia  in 
a  brief  description  of  one  of  these  evenings  given  to  me  by 
one  who  was  there :  A  dozen  artist  friends  are  in  the  room. 
In  the  midst  of  a  hubbub  of  talk,  story-telling,  laughter,  and 
badinage,  Homer  himself,  sitting  on  the  edge  of  the  model- 
stand,  under  the  gas-light,  is  working  furiously  on  a  drawing 
on  the  box-wood  block  which  has  to  be  finished  by  midnight 
for  the  Harpers.  “  Here,  one  of  you  boys,”  he  shouts,  “  fill 
my  pipe  for  me !  I ’m  too  busy  to  stop.” 

Who  were  his  friends  among  the  painters?  R.  M.  Shurt- 
leff,  the  landscape  painter,  Homer  D.  Martin,  John  F.  Weir, 
Alfred  C.  Howland,  with  his  neighbors  in  the  University 
building;  and,  later,  John  La  Farge  and  William  M.  Chase: 
these  are  some  of  them.  “  He  was  one  of  my  oldest  friends 
in  the  profession,”  says  Mr.  Shurtleff  in  speaking  of  Homer. 


36 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


Martin  was  one  of  the  silent  admirers  of  Homer’s  work,  — 
one  of  his  “  pals,”  for,  as  La  Farge  says,  he  had  “pals,”  and 
was  singular  in  their  staid  admiration  and  friendship.  This 
friendship  between  Homer  Martin  and  Winslow  Homer 
must  have  been  a  sort  of  pantomime:  “  Martin  was  capable 
of  long  stretches  of  silence,  and  Homer  had  manners  of  tell¬ 
ing  you  things  without  words.”  Then  there  was  Weir :  he 
was  another  “  pal  ”  of  Homer’s  in  the  sixties.  He  recalls 
how  Homer  visited  him  once  at  West  Point,  and  how  on 
waking  in  the  morning  he  found  him  up  and  dressed  in  time 
to  see  the  sunrise ;  “  he  got  up  and  sat  on  the  window  sill 
at  sunrise,  fascinated,  watching  it  over  the  garden.”  These 
glimpses  are  but  fleeting,  yet  they  help  to  picture  the  man 
as  he  was. 

His  determination  to  become  a  painter  had  long  since 
been  made.  He  attended  the  night  school  of  the  National 
Academy  of  Design,  then  in  Thirteenth  Street,  under  Pro¬ 
fessor  Cummings’s  tuition  ;  and  for  one  month,  in  the  old 
Dodworth  Building,  near  Grace  Church,  he  took  lessons  in 
painting  of  M.  Rondel,  an  artist  from  Boston,  who,  once  a 
week,  on  Saturdays,  taught  him  how  to  handle  his  brush, 
set  his  palette,  etc.  This  Frederic  Rondel,  a  French  artist, 
then  in  great  repute  in  New  York  as  a  teacher,  would  in  all 
likelihood  have  been  vastly  astonished  could  he  have  fore¬ 
seen  that  his  extremely  slight  connection  with  the  then  un¬ 
known  young  pupil  would  prove  eventually  to  be  his  chief 
title  to  distinction.  How  much  did  he  really  teach  young 
Homer?  Not  much,  in  one  month,  giving  him  a  lesson  a 
week,  even  allowing  that  he  was  a  wonderful  teacher.  I  am 
inclined  to  believe  that  the  young  man  got  more  useful 
instruction  in  the  night  school  of  the  National  Academy, 
and  it  would  not  be  surprising  to  learn  that  he  got  still 


NEW  YORK— THE  GREAT  WAR 


37 


more  useful  hints  from  the  fellow-painters  who  dropped  in 
to  smoke  and  chat  in  the  Washington  Square  studio. 

The  first  drawings  by  Homer  published  in  “  Harper’s 
Weekly”  after  his  arrival  in  New  York  appeared  in  Decem¬ 
ber,  1859.  A  double-page  illustration  entitled  “A  Merry 
Christmas  and  a  Happy  New  Year”  (signed  TV.  Homer , 
del.)  was  published  on  December  24.  This  design  was  di¬ 
vided  in  four  panels,  the  subjects  being  respectively  “  A 
Children’s  Christmas  Party,”  “  The  Origin  of  Christmas  ” 
(the  shepherds  adoring  the  Infant  Jesus  in  the  stable  at  Beth¬ 
lehem),  “Fifth  Avenue,”  and  “Fifty-ninth  Street”  —  which 
was  then  a  region  of  squatters’  shanties,  goats,  and  ledges, 
soon  to  make  way  for  the  palatial  quarter  adjoining  the 
Central  Park. 

“Harper’s  Weekly”  for  January  14,  i860,  contained  two 
more  Manhattan  motives,  namely,  “  The  Sleighing  Season 
—  The  Upset,”  and  “  A  Snow  Slide  in  the  City.”  In  the  first- 
named  drawing  a  sleigh  with  three  occupants  has  been  over¬ 
turned  near  the  old  “  St.  Nicholas  ”  road-house,  and  a  man 
and  two  women  are  flying  headforemost  through  the  air. 
In  the  second  drawing  a  crowd  of  foot  passengers  on  a  side¬ 
walk  have  been  overtaken  suddenly  by  a  falling  mass  of 
snow  and  ice  from  a  house-top,  and  several  victims  of  the 
mishap  are  to  be  seen  sprawling  on  the  pavement.  On  Janu¬ 
ary  28,  i860, a  double-page  drawing  called  “Skating  on  the 
Ladies’  Skating  Pond  in  the  Central  Park,  New  York,”  pre¬ 
sented  an  animated  composition  with  a  large  number  of 
figures  in  it. 

The  thirty-fifth  exhibition  of  the  National  Academy  of 
Design,  in  i860,  held  in  the  galleries  in  Tenth  Street,  near 
Broadway,  contained  a  drawing  of  “  Skating  in  the  Central 
Park,”  by  the  young  artist,  and  there  is  but  little  question  it 


38 


WINSLOW  IIOMER 


was  the  same  drawing  as  that  published  in  “  Harper’s 
Weekly.”  In  the  summer  of  i860  (September  15)  “  Harper’s 
Weekly”  contained  “  The  Drive  in  the  Central  Park,”  also 
a  double-page  illustration,  showing  in  the  foreground  many 
pleasure  vehicles  with  elegantly  attired  occupants,  and  a  few 
riders.  In  the  background  are  slopes  with  diminutive  trees, 
but  lately  set  out,  and  a  derrick.  Central  Park  was  then  in 
its  infancy,  and  Homer  was  making  the  most  of  it  as  a 
novelty. 

The  sort  of  occasional  illustrations  which  were  much  in 
vogue  in  i860  and  thereafter  are  well  typified  by  Homer’s 
“Thankgiving  Day,  i860  —  The  Two  Great  Classes  of  So¬ 
ciety,”  a  double-page  cartoon,  which  appeared  on  December 
1.  In  this  design,  the  two  great  classes  of  society  referred  to 
in  the  title  are  classified  as  “those  who  have  more  dinners 
than  appetites”  and  “those  who  have  more  appetite  than 
dinners.”  There  are  no  less  than  eight  panels  or  subdivisions 
in  this  composition,  depicting  respectively  a  fine  lady  at  her 
toilet,  having  her  hair  dressed  by  her  maid;  a  leisurely 
sporting  gentleman  smoking  in  front  of  an  open  grate  fire ; 
a  group  of  smart  folk  in  a  box  at  the  opera ;  a  miser  gloat¬ 
ing  over  his  money  in  solitude ;  a  thief  robbing  a  chicken 
roost ;  a  poor  emaciated  needlewoman  sewing  by  dim  can¬ 
dle-light  in  a  tenement  attic  ;  two  women  starving  in  a 
poverty-stricken  lodging  where  a  cradle  is  to  be  seen ;  and 
a  bootblack  who  has  stolen  a  loaf  of  bread  coming  in  at  the 
door. 

The  portentous  year  1861  marks  a  decisive  turning-point 
in  the  career  of  Winslow  Homer.  He  was  now  twenty-five 
years  of  age,  for  several  years  had  been  able  to  support, 
himself  by  his  black-and-white  work,  and  was  ready  to  take 
advantage  of  the  momentous  historic  events  which  fol- 


RATIONS 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  E.  H.  Bern 
heimer,  New  York 


THE  BRIGHT  SIDE 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  W.  A 
White 


ewoiTAa 

-smSi  .11 .3.  All  woVtoaik'.s  si’s  *w  Iso  osU.wm?- 

A'soT  'JlT/l  Amhs\ 


3CIIS  THOMS  3HT 

,k  HI  aM  \o  ttout&Uoa  si\i  su  ^«3n'v»cv  Vso  ssU  roovl 
aVvslTT 

v. 


NEW  YORK— THE  GREAT  WAR 


39 


lowed  fast  upon  the  inauguration  of  President  Lincoln  in 
March,  1861.  The  Art  Journal  historian  laconically  remarks: 
“  Funds  being  scarce,  he  got  an  appointment  from  the 
Harpers  as  artist-correspondent  at  the  seat  of  war,  and  went 
to  Washington,  where  he  drew  sketches  of  Lincoln’s  inau¬ 
guration,  and  afterwards  to  the  front  with  the  first  batch  of 
soldier-volunteers.”  The  illustrations  of  the  inauguration  of 
the  President  published  by  “Harper’s  Weekly”  on  March 
1 6,  1 86 1,  are  not  signed,  and  the  same  is  true  of  the  sub¬ 
sequent  Washington  subjects  published  on  April  27  and 
June  8,  which,  however,  are  in  all  probability  worked  up 
from  hasty  sketches  made  on  the  spot  by  “  our  special  artist 
in  Washington.”  The  number  for  March  16  contained  a 
large  double-page  view  of  the  inaugural  ceremony  at  the 
Capitol,  a  picture  of  the  procession,  and  a  drawing  of  Lin¬ 
coln  and  Buchanan  entering  the  Senate  Chamber.  The 
number  for  April  27  contained  a  drawing  of  “  General 
Thomas  Swearing  in  the  Volunteers  called  into  the  Service 
of  the  United  States  at  Washington.”  The  issue  of  June  8 
contained  a  stirring  drawing  of  “The  Advance  Guard  of  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  United  States  Crossing  the  Long  Bridge 
over  the  Potomac  at  2  A.  M.  on  May  24,  1861.” 

There  could  be  no  shadow  of  doubt  as  to  the  authorship 
of  the  “Harper’s  Weekly”  war  illustrations  that  followed, 
even  were  they  unsigned.  “  The  War  —  Making  Havelocks 
for  the  Volunteers”  was  published  on  June  29.  It  was  signed : 
Homer.  This  group  of  ladies  busily  sewing  in  an  interior 
brings  back  one  of  the  phases  of  the  early  days  of  the  great 
war.  A  double-page  drawing  entitled  “Songs  of  the  War” 
followed  on  November  23,  1861.  At  the  lower  left  corner  is 
a  marching  regiment  singing  the  refrain  of  that  stirring  song 
about  John  Brown’s  Body:  “Glory  Hallelujah!”  At  the 


40 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


lower  right  corner  “  Dixie  ”  is  symbolized  by  a  negro 
seated  on  a  barrel  labeled  “  Contraband.”  Above  are  ap¬ 
propriate  illustrations  to  the  popular  songs,  “  The  Bold  Sol¬ 
dier  Boy,”  “Hail  to  the  Chief”  (with  a  figure  of  General 
McClellan),  “We’ll  be  Free  and  Easy  Still,”  “The  Rogue’s 
March,”  and  “  The  Girl  I  Left  Behind  Me.” 

But  the  earliest  drawing  duly  signed  by  Homer  which 
bears  unmistakable  internal  evidence  of  having  been  made 
at  the  front  is  the  “  Bivouac  Fire  on  the  Potomac,”  of  De¬ 
cember  21,  1861.  This  double-page  illustration  represents  a 
picturesque  firelight  effect,  and  contains  about  forty  figures. 
In  the  foreground  two  soldiers  are  playing  cards.  Near  the 
fire  is  a  negro  playing  on  a  fiddle  and  another  negro 
dancing.  The  rest  of  the  men  are  either  sitting  or  lying  on 
the  ground,  smoking  and  watching  the  dancer.  In  the  dim 
background  are  tents,  and  the  nocturnal  sky  with  the  moon 
peeping  from  behind  the  clouds. 

A  week  later  was  published  a  double-page  illustration  of 
the  “Great  Fair  Given  at  the  City  Assembly  Rooms,  New 
York,  December,  1861,  in  Aid  of  the  City  Poor.”  January 
1 8,  1862,  is  the  date  of  a  country  scene,  a  moonlight  effect, 
with  twelve  figures,  entitled  “  The  Skating  Season,  1862.” 
Thereafter  for  a  year  at  least  these  peaceful  episodes  had  no 
more  place  in  the  programme. 

General  McClellan’s  Peninsular  campaign  was  begun  in 
the  spring  of  1862  with  high  hopes.  The  Army  of  the 
Potomac  was  landed  from  troop-ships  at  Fort  Monroe,  Old 
Point  Comfort,  Virginia,  and  marched  towards  Yorktown, 
the  historic  little  village  on  the  banks  of  the  York  River, 
where  Lord  Cornwallis  had  surrendered  his  British  army  to 
the  combined  forces  of  Washington  and  Rochambeau  in 
1781.  The  Army  of  the  Potomac  in  1862  had  just  been 


NEW  YORK— THE  GREAT  WAR 


4i 


organized,  and,  although  composed  of  excellent  material, 
was  inexperienced,  and,  what  was  still  more  certain  to  nega¬ 
tive  all  its  plans  and  efforts,  it  was  commanded  by  a  gen¬ 
eral  who  was  fatally  deficient  in  initiative,  decision,  and 
self-confidence.  It  appears  to  be  evident,  from  the  inter¬ 
esting  and  historically  valuable  series  of  drawings  by  Homer 
published  in  “  Harper’s  Weekly  ”  in  the  months  of  May, 
June,  and  July,  1862,  that  “our  special  artist,  Mr.  Winslow 
Homer,”  was  with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  throughout  the 
greater  part  of  the  Peninsular  campaign,  beginning  with  the 
so-called  Siege  of  Yorktown  in  April,  and  ending  with  the 
Battle  of  Malvern  Hill  in  July.  This  brief,  disappointing, 
and  disastrous  campaign,  in  which,  however,  the  defeated 
army  of  the  Union  inflicted  severe  punishment  upon  the 
Southern  forces,  afforded  many  alluring  opportunities  to  the 
military  artist,  —  brisk  and  bitter  fighting,  forced  marches, 
and  all  the  pageantry  of  an  active  campaign  in  the  heart 
of  the  enemy’s  country,  with  the  thousand-and-one  scenes 
and  episodes,  amusing  or  pathetic,  of  bivouac  and  camp. 
By  our  venturesome  young  man  of  twenty-six  the  hardships 
of  the  campaign,  which  the  artist  naturally  had  to  share 
with  the  rank  and  file  of  the  army,  were  accepted  with  phi¬ 
losophy.  The  majority  of  his  drawings  offer  convincing  in¬ 
ternal  evidence  that  they  were  made  from  life  and  on  the 
spot ;  moreover,  they  differ  radically  from  any  and  all  pre¬ 
ceding  war  illustrations,  attempting  no  idealization  of  the 
stern  and  sordid  aspects  of  the  subject,  but  describing  with 
the  strictest  veracity  and  with  that  accent  of  unexpected 
and  unconventional  candor  which  is  already  Winslow 
Homer’s  exclusive  personal  cachet ,  just  those  little  things  in 
army  life  which  had  before  passed  unobserved  or  unheeded 
by  the  military  painters  of  other  schools.  Most  of  the  series 


42 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


pertaining  to  the  Peninsular  campaign  deal  with  events  of 
the  earlier  part  of  the  campaign,  that  is  to  say,  from  York- 
town  up  to  the  first  of  the  engagements  in  the  vicinity  of 
Richmond,  at  Fair  Oaks  and  Seven  Pines.  Of  the  succeed¬ 
ing  Seven  Days’  Battles,  from  Gaines’s  Mill  to  Malvern 
Hill,  we  find  here  no  record,  from  which  it  may  be  fairly  in¬ 
ferred  that  Homer  had  left  the  front  before  McClellan’s 
“  change  of  base.” 

It  will  not  escape  the  notice  of  the  observer  who  studies 
the  war  drawings  made  by  Homer  that  he  does  not  choose 
for  his  motives,  as  a  rule,  the  customary  battle  scenes,  with 
long  lines  of  troops  advancing  or  retreating,  clouds  of  gun¬ 
powder  smoke,  heroic  officers  waving  their  swords  and 
calling  upon  their  men  to  “  Come  on  !  ”  —  and  all  the  rest  of 
the  stock  material  of  the  School  of  Versailles.  Quite  the 
contrary :  he,  who,  as  we  shall  see  later,  was  sensitively 
conscious  of  the  dramatic  possibilities  of  every  subject  for 
a  picture,  was  usually  content  to  sit  down  and  draw  such 
compositions  as  the  “Bivouac  Fire  on  the  Potomac”  of 
1861,  the  “  Thanksgiving  in  Camp”  of  1862,  the  “Pay  Day 
in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  ”  of  1863,  or  the  “  Holiday  in 
Camp  —  Soldiers  Playing  Football”  of  1865.  These  may 
possibly  be  thought  comparatively  tame  and  trivial  motives, 
at  such  a  time  of  storm  and  stress,  but  candor  compels 
the  admission  that  Homer  succeeds  better  in  these  camp- 
life  drawings  than  in  his  infrequent  and  soon-abandoned 
excursions  into  the  field  of  bayonet  charges  and  cavalry 
combats. 

On  going  to  the  front  Homer  was  attached  unofficially  to 
the  staff  of  a  young  officer  who  was  to  distinguish  himself 
by  brilliant  services  later  in  the  war,  and  who  did  everything 
in  his  power  to  help  the  young  artist  and  to  facilitate  his 


CUTTING  A  FIGURE 

From  a  drawing  engraved  on  wood  by  W.  H.  Morse  for 
Every  Saturday,  Boston,  February  4,  1871 


A  WINTER  MORNING  — SHOVELING  OUT 
From  a  drawing  engraved  on  wood  by  G.  A.  Avery  for 
Every  Saturday,  Boston,  January  14,  1871 


<■  '. 

35KJ0i'I  A  DMI-TTu  3  ■ 

.II  .31  te&yJ  kc.  ImaNgK  j  ys^yoyI 

i\?-\  ,\.  Yuv.nfol  ,.>j?.  .ysinijjxici’  \isv3. 


TUO  DMIJaVOI;  .  —  OMI?I5IOM  KSTVAV/  A 

•?o\  v-N^k  .K  .D  ^ooii?  «o  Jmsngits  o  Yv.ovl 

lx?)!  ,^X  ^'vDiS-NoI  ,«oUoS.  tV.G[iinJj3S  Y‘10v3 


NEW  YORK— THE  GREAT  WAR 


43 


work.  This  was  Colonel  Francis  C.  Barlow,  who,  promoted 
on  his  merits,  step  by  step,  through  all  the  Virginia  cam¬ 
paigns,  at  length  attained  the  important  position  of  Brevet 
Major-General  in  command  of  a  division  of  the  Second 
Corps. 

The  pass  issued  to  Homer  from  the  Provost  Marshal’s 
office  in  Washington  bears  the  date  of  April  i,  1862,  and 
the  reproduction  of  it  here  has  been  made  from  the  original 
in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Arthur  B.  Homer.  The  original  is 
somewhat  discolored  by  time,  moisture,  and  the  wear  and 
tear  incidental  to  a  long  sojourn  in  the  pocket  of  the 
bearer. 

The  first  three  drawings  of  the  series  illustrating  the  events 
and  incidents  of  the  Peninsular  campaign  were  published  in 
“Harper’s  Weekly  ”on  May  17,  1862.  These  drawings  repre¬ 
sented  episodes  which  evidently  came  under  the  direct  ob¬ 
servation  of  the  artist  at  Yorktown.  They  are:  “Rebels 
Outside  their  Works  at  Yorktown  Reconnoitring  with  Dark 
Lanterns,”  “  The  Charge  of  the  First  Massachusetts  Regi¬ 
ment  on  a  Rebel  Rifle  Pit  near  Yorktown,”  and  “  The  Union 
Cavalry  and  Artillery  Starting  in  Pursuit  of  the  Rebels  up 
the  Yorktown  Turnpike.”  On  June  7,  a  drawing  entitled 
“  The  Army  of  the  Potomac  —  Our  Outlying  Picket  in  the 
Woods”  was  published.  Next,  a  double-page  cartoon  enti¬ 
tled  “  News  from  the  War,”  which  was  duly  credited  to  “  Our 
Special  Artist,  Mr.  Winslow  Homer,”  appeared  on  June  14. 
This  comprised  six  related  themes,  grouped  under  the  one 
general  head.  “  The  Newspaper  Train”  showed  the  arrival 
of  the  train  at  a  station  near  the  army  headquarters ; 
“Wounded”  represented  a  weeping  wife  who  has  just  re¬ 
ceived  a  telegram  ;  “  News  for  the  Staff”  and  “  News  for  the 
Fleet  ”  illustrated  the  eager  interest  with  which  letters  from 


44 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


home  were  received;  “From  Richmond”  suggested  the 
keen  anxiety  with  which  tidings  from  the  prisoners  were 
awaited ;  and  finally  in  the  drawing  of  “  Our  Special  Artist” 
we  see  Homer  himself  sitting  on  a  barrel  and  sketching  the 
full-length  likenesses  of  two  giants  belonging  to  one  of  the 
western  regiments,  E.  Farrin  and  J.  ].  Handley,  who  were 
said  to  be  six  feet  and  seven  inches  tall. 

On  July  5,  Homer’s  drawing  of  “A  Cavalry  Charge”  was 
published  ;  and  on  July  12  he  contributed  two  drawings, 
namely,  “  The  Surgeon  at  Work  at  the  Rear  during  an  En¬ 
gagement,”  and  “The  War  for  the  Union,  1862 — A  Bayo¬ 
net  Charge.”  According  to  a  short  article  in  “  Harper’s 
Weekly”  of  July  12,  these  drawings  are  “by  our  artist,  Mr. 
Winslow  Homer,  who  spent  some  time  with  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  and  drew  his  figures  from  life.”  “  The  Bayonet 
Charge,”  adds  the  writer,  “  is  one  of  the  most  spirited  pic¬ 
tures  ever  published  in  this  country.”  It  depicts  a  hand-to- 
hand  encounter  of  infantry,  presumably  in  one  of  the  engage¬ 
ments  near  the  Chickahominy,  and  possibly  at  the  Battle  of 
Fair  Oaks,  although  there  is  room  for  some  doubt  as  to  this 
point.  There  was  a  charge  of  five  regiments  of  the  Second 
Corps,  under  General  Edwin  V.  Sumner,  near  the  Adams 
house,  just  northeast  of  the  Fair  Oaks  station,  towards  the 
close  of  the  day,  May  31,  one  result  of  which  was  the  capture 
of  three  field  officers  and  about  one  hundred  men  from  the 
rebel  forces.  The  episode  is  quite  elaborately  described  in 
General  Francis  A.  Walker’s  “  History  of  the  Second  Army 
Corps,”  on  pages  34,  35,  36,  and  37.  This  charge  was  made 
by  the  Fifteenth  and  Twentieth  Massachusetts,  the  Seventh 
Michigan,  the  Thirty-fourth  and  Eighty-second  New  York 
regiments.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  General  Francis  W.  Palfrey, 
who  at  that  time  commanded  the  Twentieth  Massachusetts, 


NEW  YORK-THE  GREAT  WAR 


45 


in  his  comments  on  Fair  Oaks  (vide  “  The  Peninsular  Cam¬ 
paign  of  General  McClellan  in  1862,”  vol.  1  of  the  Papers  of 
the  Military  Historical  Society  of  Massachusetts,  1881),  makes 
the  disillusionizing  remark:  “I  know  that  our  so-called 
charge  was  only  a  rapid  and  spirited  advance.  I  do  not  be¬ 
lieve  that  a  man  in  the  five  or  six  regiments  which  took  part 
in  it  used  the  bayonet.” 

On  November  15,  a  drawing  entitled  ‘‘The  Army  of  the 
Potomac  —  A  Sharpshooter  on  Picket  Duty”  was  published 
in  “Harper’s  Weekly,”  with  the  legend,  “  From  a  painting  by 
W.  Homer,  Esq.”  It  shows  a  soldier  sitting  on  the  limb  of  a 
great  pine  tree,  far  above  the  ground,  aiming  his  rifle  with 
the  utmost  care,  resting  the  barrel  on  a  branch  to  steady  it. 
His  canteen,  hanging  on  a  bough  near  at  hand,  suggests 
that  the  sharpshooter  has  taken  up  his  lofty  position  with  the 
forethought  that  he  does  not  intend  to  be  driven  to  abandon 
his  coign  of  vantage  by  thirst.  On  November  29,  Homer  de¬ 
scribes,  not  without  a  touch  of  humor,  “  Thanksgiving  in 
Camp.”  The  scene  takes  place  in  front  of  a  sutler’s  tent, 
where  crudely  painted  signs  announce  that  pies,  herring, 
cider,  etc.,  are  for  sale.  A  dozen  or  more  figures  of  soldiers, 
who  are  eating,  drinking,  smoking,  gossiping,  are  shown  in 
this  exceedingly  unsentimental  composition. 

“  A  Shell  in  the  Rebel  Trenches,”  which  was  published  in 
“  Harper’s  Weekly  ”  on  January  17, 1863,  represented  negroes 
cowering  and  throwing  themselves  on  the  ground  as  a  shell 
exploded.  “  Winter  Quarters  in  Camp  —  The  Inside  of  a 
Hut”  was  published  a  week  later.  In  this  drawing,  to  quote 
the  explanatory  text  which  accompanied  it,  “  Mr.  Homer 
shows  us  the  interior  of  a  hut,  in  which  a  glowing  fire  is 
blazing,  shedding  light  and  warmth  around.  Stretched  on 
the  floor,  bunks,  and  seats,  are  soldiers  in  every  imaginable 


46 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


position,  —  smoking,  chatting,  reading,  card  playing,  and 
sleeping.  Almost  in  every  company  there  is  one  sharp-witted 
fellow  who  can  tell  a  good  story.  The  soldiers’  great  delight 
is  to  get  this  man  into  a  tent  or  hut,  and  start  him  on  a  good 
long  old-fashioned  yarn,  which  lasts  from  dark  until  far  on 
in  the  night.” 

“Pay  Day  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac”  was  a  double¬ 
page  drawing,  published  on  February  28,  1863.  The  four 
panels  composing  the  design  were  respectively  devoted  to 
“  Pay  Day,”  “  A  Descent  on  the  Sutler,”  “  Sending  Money 
Home,”  and  “The  Letter.” 

The  first  sea  picture  in  black-and-white  ever  signed  by 
Homer  was  published  in  “  Harper’s  Weekly  ”  for  April  25, 
1863.  Its  title  was  “ The  Approach  of  the  British  Pirate  ‘Ala¬ 
bama.’  ”  The  scene  was  the  deck  of  an  American  merchant 
vessel.  An  officer,  in  the  centre  of  a  group  of  figures,  was 
looking  through  a  telescope.  On  the  far  horizon  a  ship  was 
visible.  Four  women  were  gazing  at  the  hostile  craft  with  an 
expression  of  apprehension. 

“Home  from  the  War”  appeared  in  the  “Weekly”  for 
June  13,  1863.  It  represented  mothers,  wives,  and  sweethearts 
welcoming  the  returning  soldiers.  On  November  21,  1863, 
Homer  signed  a  drawing  of  double-page  size  depicting  “  The 
Great  Russian  Ball  at  the  Academy  of  Music”  which  had 
been  one  of  the  features  of  the  timely  visit  of  the  Russian 
fleet  early  in  that  month. 

His  first  oil  paintings  were  pictures  of  war  scenes.  They 
were  begun  in  1862,  immediately  after  his  return  to  his  New 
York  studio  from  the  Peninsular  campaign.  The  earliest  of 
them  all  was  “  The  Sharpshooter  on  Picket  Duty,”  already 
mentioned.  Its  size  was  about  sixteen  by  twenty  inches.  Mr. 
R.  M.  Shurtleff,  the  landscape  painter,  has  related  how  he 


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NEW  YORK-THE  GREAT  WAR 


47 


sat  with  Homer  in  the  studio  many  days  while  he  was  at 
work  on  this  picture,  and  he  remembers  discussing  with  him 
how  much  it  would  be  advisable  to  ask  for  it.  “  He  decided 
not  less  than  sixty  dollars,  as  that  was  what  Harper  paid  him 
for  a  full-page  drawing  on  the  wood.”  When  “  The  Sharp¬ 
shooter”  was  completed,  he  placed  it,  with  another  picture,1 
in  an  exhibition,  and  declared  that  if  they  were  not  sold  he 
would  give  up  painting  and  accept  Harper  &  Brothers’  pro¬ 
position.  The  two  pictures  were  bought  by  a  stranger,  whose 
name  the  artist  learned  only  after  a  lapse  of  seven  years.  This 
may  have  been  a  crisis  in  his  career. 

After  disposing  of  “The  Sharpshooter,”  he  felt  greatly  en¬ 
couraged.  He  went  on  with  his  oil  paintings  and  completed 
“  Rations,”  “  Home,  Sweet  Home,”  and  “  The  Last  Goose  at 
Yorktown.”  “  Rations  ”  is  a  small  upright  painting,  eighteen 
by  twelve  inches  in  dimensions,  which  was  finished  in  1863 
from  studies  made  in  1862.  It  became  the  property  of  Mr. 
Thomas  B.  Clarke  of  New  York,  and  was  sold  for  five  hun¬ 
dred  dollars  at  the  Clarke  sale  in  1899,  the  buyer  being  Mr. 
E.  H.  Bernheimer  of  New  York.  The  description  of  this  pic¬ 
ture  in  the  Clarke  catalogue  is  as  follows :  — 

“There  are  hard  times  in  camp.  Rations  are  short  and 
the  sutler’s  shed,  under  its  arbor  of  pine  boughs  in  the  fore¬ 
ground,  is  the  cynosure  of  many  hungry  eyes.  One  cam¬ 
paigner,  happy  in  the  possession  of  funds,  is  seated  on  the 
rude  plank  table  at  the  sutler’s  door  complacently  devouring 
a  huge  segment  of  cheese  as  a  flavor  for  his  hard-tack.  An¬ 
other  trooper  leans  upon  a  shelf  and  watches  his  occupation 
with  a  melancholy  born  of  an  empty  purse  and  a  craving 

1  A  picture  of  a  soldier  being  punished  for  intoxication.  Of  this  Homer  him¬ 
self  said,  many  years  afterwards,  “  It  is  about  as  beautiful  and  interesting  as  the 
button  on  a  barn-door.” 


48 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


stomach,  with  nothing  but  unflavored  hard-tack  to  fall  back 
upon.  The  humor  of  the  situation  is  accentuated  by  the  side 
glance  which  the  lucky  enjoyer  of  extra  rations —  who  is  a 
private  soldier  —  casts  upon  his  neighbor,  whose  uniform 
shows  him  to  be  an  officer  a  few  grades  above  him  in  rank. 
In  the  background  are  seen  the  tent  lines  of  the  encampment 
and  the  troop  horses.” 

“  Defiance  ”  is  the  title  given  to  a  small  oil  painting,  meas¬ 
uring  twelve  by  twenty  inches,  of  an  episode  in  the  Peninsular 
campaign  which  came  under  the  artist’s  personal  observa¬ 
tion.  In  the  foreground  is  a  line  of  hastily  constructed  earth¬ 
works,  behind  which  are  many  figures  of  soldiers.  A  negro 
near  the  foreground  is  playing  on  the  banjo.  A  foolhardy 
young  infantry  private  has  climbed  up  on  the  top  of  the  en¬ 
trenchments,  in  full  view  of  the  enemy,  where  he  stands,  with 
his  form  outlined  against  the  sky,  a  conspicuous  target,  strik¬ 
ing  a  pose  which  plainly  says  :  “  I  dare  you  to  shoot  me  1  ” 
Such  silly  exhibitions  of  bravado  were  probably  more  com¬ 
mon  in  the  very  early  days  of  the  war  than  they  were  later. 
The  landscape  in  this  picture  illustrates  how  a  country  oc¬ 
cupied  by  two  armies  looks  after  the  trees  have  been  cut 
down  to  facilitate  the  operations  of  the  artillery ;  out  in  front 
of  the  entrenchments  there  is  a  ghastly  neutral  zone  dotted 
with  stumps,  extending  to  the  distant  line  of  works  occupied 
by  the  enemy’s  forces.  This  interesting  and  little-known  pic¬ 
ture  was  for  many  years  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Frederick  S. 
Gibbs  of  New  York.  At  the  sale  of  the  Gibbs  collection  in 
1904,  it  was  bought  by  Mr.  T.  R.  Ball,  for  three  hundred  and 
twenty-five  dollars. 

“The  Last  Goose  at  Yorktown”  and  “Home,  Sweet 
Home”  were  exhibited  at  the  National  Academy  of  1863. 
These  two  works,  both  of  them  illustrating  camp  scenes  be- 


NEW  YORK-THE  GREAT  WAR 


49 


fore  Yorktown,  were  the  first  oil  paintings  ever  exhibited  at 
the  Academy  by  Winslow  Homer.  “  Home,  Sweet  Home” 
represented  the  soldiers  of  McClellan’s  army  listening,  per¬ 
haps  with  a  touch  of  homesickness,  to  the  playing  of  a  regi¬ 
mental  band.  “The  Last  Goose  at  Yorktown,”  an  amusing 
incident  of  the  early  days  of  the  Peninsular  campaign,  was 
bought  by  Mr.  Dean  of  New  York.  It  may  well  be  supposed 
that  the  exhibition  of  these  war  scenes  during  the  stress  and 
excitement  of  1863  served  to  draw  the  public  attention  to  the 
young  artist  in  no  ordinary  degree. 

After  returning  from  the  seat  of  war  to  his  New  York 
studio  Homer  made  a  series  of  six  lithographs  which  he  pub¬ 
lished  under  the  general  title  of  “  Campaign  Sketches.”  These 
small  lithographs  depict  camp  scenes,  such  as  “  The  Coffee 
Call,”  and  similar  incidents  of  army  life,  in  the  same  vein  as 
many  of  the  illustrations  already  described. 

At  that  period  of  his  life  Homer  was  a  good-looking  and 
alert  young  man  of  twenty-seven.  He  was  genial  and  friendly 
in  his  manner,  was  not  averse  to  society,  dressed  with  scru¬ 
pulous  neatness  and  in  good  taste,  and,  in  his  quiet  way,  was 
fond  of  fun.  Calling,  one  day,  at  the  studio  of  an  artist  ac¬ 
quaintance  in  Boston,  he  pulled  a  handful  of  ribbons  from 
his  pocket,  and  remarked,  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eyes,  that  he 
had  been  shopping. 

“What  do  you  want  of  so  many  ribbons?”  asked  his 
friend. 

He  explained  that  he  did  not  want  the  ribbons,  but  he  had 
bought  them  in  order  to  make  a  pretext  for  going  into  the 
stores  and  talking  with  the  pretty  sales-girls.  Whenever  he 
saw  a  pretty  face  in  the  stores  he  would  stop  and  buy  some 
ribbons. 

He  was  invited  out  a  good  deal,  and  appeared  to  enjoy 


50 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


society.  “  He  had  the  usual  number  of  love  affairs  when  he 
was  a  young  man,”  said  one  who  knew  him  well  at  that  time; 
but  Mr.  Baker  told  me  that  he  always  spoke  of  women  “  in  a 
remote  tone,”  as  of  a  subject  which  did  not  closely  or  person¬ 
ally  interest  him. 


CHAPTER  IV 


EARLY  WORKS 
1864-1871.  JE tat.  28-35 

Pictures  of  Camp  Life  —  Made  an  Academician  —  “  The  Bright  Side”  — 
“  Pitching  Quoits”  —  “  Prisoners  from  the  Front” —  First  Voyage  to  Europe 
—  What  he  did  not  do  — “  The  Sail-Boat”  —  Drawings  for  “Every  Satur¬ 
day.” 

ENCOURAGED  by  the  interest  shown  in  his  paintings 
of  war  scenes,  Homer  continued  to  produce  pictures 
of  camp  life  as  he  had  observed  it  in  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac.  At  the  National  Academy  of  Design  of  1864  he 
exhibited  his  “  In  Front  of  the  Guard-House  ”  and  “  The 
Briarwood  Pipe.”  He  was  made  an  associate  of  the  National 
Academy  that  year,  and  was  elected  an  Academician  the 
following  year,  when  still  under  thirty  years  of  age.  It  is  of  in¬ 
terest  to  note  that  Elihu  Vedder  and  Seymour  J.  Guy  were 
elected  Academicians  the  same  year  as  Homer.  Eastman 
Johnson  had  been  elected  five  years  earlier.  John  La  Farge 
became  an  Academician  in  1869.  Frederic  E.  Church’s 
election  dated  from  1849.  George  Inness  and  A.  H.  Wyant 
were  elected  in  1868  and  1869  respectively.  The  exhibition 
of  1864  was  held  in  the  galleries  of  a  building  known  as  the 
Institute  of  Art,  at  625  Broadway,  but  that  of  1865  was  the 
first  exhibition  held  in  the  then  new  building  of  the  Academy, 
on  the  corner  of  Fourth  Avenue  and  Twenty-Third  Street,  a 
structure  of  white  and  gray  marble  in  the  Venetian  Gothic 
style,  which  was  regarded  as  a  splendid  monument  of  archi¬ 
tecture,  and  was  often  spoken  of  as  a  modified  copy  of  the 


52 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


Ducal  Palace  at  Venice.  Homer,  from  the  day  of  his  election, 
in  1865,  to  his  death,  in  1910,  continued  to  be  a  loyal  member 
of  the  Academy,  and  regularly  exhibited  his  most  important 
oil  paintings  there  fora  quarter  of  a  century. 

The  year  of  his  election,  1865,  he  sent  three  paintings  to  the 
Academy  exhibition.  They  were  “The  Bright  Side,”  “Pitch¬ 
ing  Quoits,”  and  “The  Initials.”  “The  Bright  Side,”  a  small 
canvas,  about  thirteen  inches  high  by  seventeen  inches  wide, 
was  quite  generally  pronounced  the  best  oil  painting  that  the 
young  artist  had  made  up  to  that  time.  “  Four  negro  teamsters 
are  lying  in  the  sun  against  the  side  of  a  tent.  The  man  at 
the  right  wears  a  battered  high  hat,  a  military  coat,  and  top 
boots,  and  holds  a  whip  in  his  left  hand  ;  beyond  his  raised 
knee  is  the  head  of  the  second  figure  in  a  peaked  military  cap. 
The  next  one  wears  a  red  shirt  and  broad-brimmed  gray  hat, 
and  his  hands  are  clasped  back  of  his  head;  the  farthest  one, 
with  arms  folded,  wears  a  broad-brimmed  military  hat.  In  the 
opening  of  the  tent  is  the  head  of  another  negro  with  a  broad- 
brimmed  hat ;  a  corn-cob  pipe  is  in  his  mouth.  Beyond,  at 
the  left,  are  commissariat  wagons  with  rounded  canvas  tops, 
and  near  by  are  unharnessed  mules.  In  the  distance  is  the 
camp.  In  the  immediate  foreground,  at  the  right,  part  of  a 
barrel  shows.”  1 

This  was  the  first  work  in  color  to  show  any  positive  pro¬ 
mise  of  what  Homer’s  talent  for  actuality  might  become. 
The  figures  of  the  negro  teamsters  are  admirably  character¬ 
ized,  though  they  are  of  the  nigger-minstrel  type  of  Cullud 
Gemmen  ;  they  are  well  drawn  and  quite  living.  This  picture 
was  bought  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Hamilton.  Later  it  passed  into 
the  possession  of  Mr.  Lawson  Valentine,  and  still  later  it  was 

1  Catalogue  of  the  memorial  exhibition  of  1911  at  the  Metropolitan  Museum 
of  Art,  New  York. 


SNAP  THE  WHIP 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Richard 
H.  Ewart,  New  York 


* 

•- 

. 


1IHW  3HT  HAH8  . 
w  \o  swwbaw'oo  am  t»  swwswpct  wo  «to\T. 
awi  osovi  ,a»w5.  .  n. 


EARLY  WORKS 


53 


acquired  by  Mr.  Thomas  B.  Clarke.  At  the  Clarke  sale  in  1899 
it  was  bought  by  Mr.  Samuel  P.  Avery,  Jr.,  for  five  hundred 
and  twenty-five  dollars ;  and  it  is  now  in  the  collection  of 
Mr.  W.  A.  White. 

The  painting  entitled  “  Pitching  Quoits,”  another  camp 
scene,  has  been  known  generally  since  its  first  appearance 
in  1865  as  “Zouaves  Pitching  Quoits.”  Although  a  good 
deal  larger  than  “  The  Bright  Side,”  it  is  more  ordinary  in 
color,  and  less  interesting  in  characterization.  The  scene  was 
one  that  the  young  artist  witnessed  in  the  camps  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac  in  front  of  Washington  before  the  army 
moved  down  to  the  Peninsula  of  Virginia  under  McClellan 
in  1862.  A  group  of  eight  or  nine  of  the  volunteers  from 
New  York  wearing  the  uniforms  of  the  Hawkins  Zouaves  — 
poor  fellows  1  the  amount  of  chaffing  they  had  to  endure  on 
account  of  their  absurd  uniforms  must  have  been  a  worse  or¬ 
deal  than  going  under  the  fire  of  the  enemy  !  —  are  diverting 
themselves  by  playing  that  good  old  game  of  quoits.  Three 
of  the  figures  at  the  right  are  nearest  the  foreground,  and 
one  of  these  is  in  the  act  of  pitching  the  quoit.  Another  group 
of  the  men,  about  ten  yards  away,  to  the  left,  watch  his  at¬ 
tempt.  In  the  background  are  rows  of  tents,  and  a  sutler’s 
store,  with  an  extemporized  awning  of  boughs  —  the  same 
that  was  introduced  in  “  Rations.”  This  was  the  largest 
canvas  that  the  artist  had  painted ;  its  interest,  at  the  time 
purely  illustrative,  is  now  chiefly  historic ;  and  it  must  be 
frankly  confessed  that,  though  everything  relating  to  the 
Civil  War  is  of  value,  no  one  wrould  have  ventured  to  pre¬ 
dict  the  future  greatness  of  the  painter  on  the  basis  of  this 
performance  in  1865.  The  picture  now  belongs  to  Mr.  Fred¬ 
eric  H.  Curtiss,  and  it  made  its  reappearance,  after  many 
years,  in  the  Boston  memorial  exhibition  of  1911. 


54 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


The  only  drawings  published  in  “Harper’s  Weekly  ”  in  1864 
were:  “‘Anything  for  Me,  if  You  Please?’”  a  scene  in 
the  post-office  of  the  Brooklyn  fair  in  aid  of  the  Sanitary 
Commission  (signed  Homer  on  one  of  the  letters) ;  and 
“ Thanksgiving  Day  in  the  Army:  —  After  Dinner:  The 
Wish-Bone”  (“Drawn  by  W.  Homer”).  The  drawings  pub¬ 
lished  in  1865  were  three  in  number  :  “  Holiday  in  Camp  — 
Soldiers  Playing  Football,”  July  15  ;  “  Our  Watering-Places 
—  Horse- Racing  at  Saratoga,”  August  26  (the  design  show¬ 
ing  the  crowd  of  spectators  in  the  grand-stand,  watching  the 
finish  of  an  exciting  race);  and  “Our  Watering-Places  — 
The  Empty  Sleeve  at  Newport,”  August  26,  an  illustration  to 
a  story  in  the  same  issue  of  the  paper. 

It  was  not  until  the  war  was  over  that  Homer  exhibited 
his  most  celebrated  war  painting,  “  Prisoners  from  the  Front.” 
This  work  appeared  at  the  National  Academy  exhibition  of 
1866,  together  with  one  other  painting,  “  The  Brush  Harrow.” 

“  Prisoners  from  the  Front  ”  served  to  confirm  the  favora¬ 
ble  impression  which  had  been  made  by  “  The  Bright  Side.” 
Mr.  Caffin  1  writes  that  this  picture  made  a  profound  impres¬ 
sion.  “  Popular  excitement  was  at  fever  heat,  so  the  picture 
fitted  the  hour;  but  it  would  not  have  enlisted  such  an  enthu¬ 
siastic  reception  if  it  had  not  approximated  in  intensity  to 
the  pitch  of  the  people’s  feeling.  It  has,  in  fact,  the  elements 
of  a  great  picture,  quite  apart  from  its  association  with  the 
circumstances  of  the  time :  a  subject  admirably  adapted  to 
pictorial  representation,  explaining  itself  at  once,  offering 
abundant  opportunity  for  characterization,  and  in  its  treat¬ 
ment  free  from  any  triviality.  On  the  contrary,  the  painter 
has  felt  beyond  the  limits  of  the  episode  itself  the  profound 

1  American  Masters  of  Painting,  by  Charles  H.  Caffin.  New  York:  Double¬ 
day,  Page  &  Co.,  1906. 


EARLY  WORKS 


55 


significance  of  the  struggle  in  which  this  was  but  an  eddy, 
and  in  the  generalization  of  his  theme  has  imparted  to  it 
the  character  of  a  type.” 

The  picture  was  bought  by  John  Taylor  Johnston ;  was 
exhibited  at  the  Paris  International  Exposition  of  1867; 
also  at  the  Centennial  Loan  Exhibition  of  1876,  held  in 
the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  at  128  West  Fourteenth 
Street,  New  York ;  and,  at  the  sale  of  the  Johnston  collection 
in  1876,  was  sold  to  the  late  Samuel  P.  Avery,  the  picture 
dealer,  for  eighteen  hundred  dollars.  Mr.  Avery  sold  it  to  a 
collector,  and  when  the  committee  which  had  charge  of 
the  Homer  Memorial  Exhibition  of  1911  in  New  York  tried 
to  ascertain  its  whereabouts  and  ownership,  it  was  found  to 
be  impossible  to  locate  it.  Mr.  Bryson  Burroughs,  curator  of 
the  department  of  paintings  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of 
Art,  informs  me  :  — 

“  We  were  not  able  to  find  the  name  of  the  owner  of 
‘  Prisoners  from  the  Front.’  We  corresponded  with  a  Mrs. 

- ,  No.  —  West - Street,  who  knows  about  the  picture, 

but  she  was  not  at  liberty  to  give  the  owner’s  name.  She 
was  approached  by  several  people  in  regard  to  it,  but  al¬ 
ways  gave  the  same  response.” 

The  committee  even  induced  Mr.  Charles  S.  Homer  to 
open  a  correspondence  with  the  lady,  but  she  remained  ob¬ 
durate,  and  addressed  her  reply  to  “  Miss  Homer.” 

While  Homer  was  painting  “  Prisoners  from  the  Front  ” 
and  the  rest  of  the  army  subjects  of  that  period,  he  had  a 
lay  figure,  which  was  alternately  dressed  up  in  the  blue  uni¬ 
form  of  the  Union  soldier  and  the  butternut  gray  of  the 
Confederate  soldier,  serving  with  soulless  impartiality,  now 
as  a  Northerner  and  now  as  a  Southerner.  One  day,  while 
he  was  at  work  on  the  roof  of  the  University  Building, 


56 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


where  he  had  posed  his  effigy  in  order  to  get  the  effect  of 
the  full  sunlight  on  his  figure,  a  sudden  gust  of  wind  came 
up  and  was  like  to  have  carried  the  lay  figure  off  the  roof 
before  the  artist  could  catch  it  and  secure  it. 

It  has  been  stated  repeatedly  that  Homer  owed  his 
election  as  an  Academician  to  the  picture  of  “  Prisoners  from 
the  Front,”  and  this  would  seem  strange  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  his  election  occurred  in  1865,  while  the  picture  was  not 
exhibited  in  the  Academy  until  1866,  did  we  not  know  how 
quickly  the  news  of  a  successful  picture  spreads  through 
the  little  world  of  the  studios.  John  La  Farge,  as  late  as 
1910,  when,  on  his  death-bed  in  the  Butler  Hospital  at  Pro¬ 
vidence,  Rhode  Island,  he  dictated  a  pathetic  tribute  to 
Homer,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Gustav  Kobbe,  the  art  editor  of 
the  “New  York  Herald,”  remembered  the  “Prisoners  from 
the  Front,”  and  thus  spoke  of  it :  — 

“  He  made  a  marvellous  painting,  marvellous  in  every 
way,  but  especially  in  the  grasp  of  the  moment,  the  painting 
of  the  ‘Prisoners  at  the  Front’  when  General  Barlow  re¬ 
ceived  the  surrender  of  the  Confederates.  Strange  to  say, 
because  usually  there  are  objections,  this  man  was  accepted, 
I  believe,  by  everybody.” 

The  impression  must  have  been  indeed  strong  to  remain 
in  La  Farge’s  busy  mind  for  forty-four  years. 

It  was  in  1866  that  Homer  assisted  in  organizing  the  Amer¬ 
ican  Watercolor  Society,  though  at  that  period  he  had  not 
painted  any  watercolors.  Later  in  the  history  of  the  society’s 
annual  exhibitions,  as  will  be  shown,  he  won  some  of  his  most 
legitimate  laurels  in  this  field.  The  opening  exhibition  of  the 
new  society  in  New  York  was  the  first  general  exhibition  of 
watercolors  ever  held  in  America. 

In  1867  Homer  made  his  first  voyage  to  Europe.  This  was 


GLOUCESTER  HARBOR 
From  the  drawing  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Horace  D. 
Chapin,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Lawrence 


GLOUCESTER  HARBOR 
From  the  watercolor  belonging  to  the  Edward  W. 
Hooper  estate,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Law¬ 


rence 


HO#HAH  518'.:  dHD' 10,10 


.0.  aasmll  /tUL  \o  woiv^kd  a.Ai  «*  ^vvvjsmb  SAV  wovi 
.  k  nates  AO  '<.A  A^m§eAGA3.‘  .koV^oS.  ,vw<^iuV^ 


>10851  AH  5I3T83 OTJ 0 J D 


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-v»S)V\  .k  -«toaAO  vA  A^m^oAS.  .nAYiAS.  ,sUA?.a  *raqA§ff 


EARLY  WORKS 


57 


the  year  of  one  of  the  first  great  international  expositions  in 
Paris.  Two  of  his  paintings  were  exhibited  there:  “  Prisoners 
from  the  Front  ”  and  “  The  Bright  Side.”  Of  them  the  “  Lon¬ 
don  Art  Journal,”  November  i,  1867,  said:  “In  genre,  and 
scenes  simply  domestic,  American  painters,  as  might  be  an¬ 
ticipated,  are  more  at  home  than  in  history.  Certainly  most 
capital  for  touch,  character,  and  vigor,  are  a  couple  of  little 
pictures,  taken  from  the  recent  war,  by  Mr.  Winslow  Homer, 
of  New  York.  These  works  are  real :  the  artist  paints  what 
he  has  seen  and  known.”  A  great  many  high-flown  art 
criticisms  have  not  the  force  of  this  simple  comment,  “  These 
works  are  real.”  Paul  Mantz,  the  French  art  critic,  in  an  arti¬ 
cle  published  in  the  “  Gazette  des  Beaux-Arts,”  wrote  that 
“  Mr.  Winslow  Homer  in  justice  ought  not  to  be  passed  by 
unobserved.  There  is  facial  expression  and  subtilty  in  his 
‘Prisoners  from  the  Front’  ( Prisonniers  confederes)',  we  like 
much  also  the  ‘  Bright  Side  ’  ( Le  Cotk  clair),  which  shows  a 
group  of  soldiers  stretched  out  in  the  sun  near  a  tent.  This 
is  a  firm,  precise  painting,  in  the  manner  of  Gerome,  but 
with  less  dryness.” 

Homer  received  no  official  recognition,  however,  at  Paris. 
The  only  award  given  to  any  American  artist  was  the  medal 
conferred  on  Frederic  E.  Church.  Albert  Schenck,  a  well- 
known  painter  of  animals,  especially  noted  for  his  pictures 
of  sheep,  who  was  a  member  of  the  international  jury  on 
paintings,  told  the  late  Thomas  Robinson  that  four  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  jury  voted  to  give  a  medal  to  Homer,  but  there 
were  not  votes  enough  to  carry  the  motion.  The  Goupils 
were  then  publishing  reproductions  of  Church’s  landscapes, 
including  his  “  Niagara,”  and  he  was  better  known  to  Eu¬ 
ropeans  than  any  other  American  painter  of  the  time.  Wil¬ 
liam  Morris  Hunt  was  an  exhibitor,  but  his  work  showed  so 


58 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


plainly  the  influence  of  Millet  and  Couture  that  the  French 
artists  justly  deemed  him  far  less  original  than  Homer. 

It  does  not  appear  that  much  attention  was  bestowed  upon 
the  works  of  the  American  artists.  The  number  of  the  exhib¬ 
its  was  relatively  insignificant,  and  the  pictures  were  tucked 
away  in  an  obscure  corner  of  the  art  department.  I  have 
searched  through  the  files  of  the  French,  English,  and  Amer¬ 
ican  art  periodicals  of  1867  without  finding  any  mention  of 
the  American  art  section,  with  the  exception  of  those  in  the 
“Art  Journal”  and  “Gazette  des  Beaux- Arts”  which  have 
been  quoted. 

After  the  close  of  the  Paris  Exposition  “  Prisoners  from 
the  Front  ”  and  “  The  Bright  Side  ”  were  sent  to  Brussels 
and  to  Antwerp,  where  they  were  shown  in  two  international 
exhibitions,  and,  according  to  a  report  from  the  then  Amer¬ 
ican  Minister  to  Belgium,  Mr.  Henry  Sanford,  these  two 
works,  with  others  by  American  painters,  were  highly  suc¬ 
cessful.  Henry  T.  Tuckerman’s  “  Book  of  the  Artists,”  pub¬ 
lished  in  New  York  in  1867,  states:  — 

“  At  the  late  Fine  Arts  Exhibitions  in  Antwerp  and  Brus¬ 
sels,  several  landscapes  by  American  painters  attracted  much 
attention.  The  American  Minister  at  Belgium,  Mr.  Sanford, 
writes  that  an  artist  of  Brussels  of  much  merit  and  celebrity 
declared  the  works  of  our  artists  there  exhibited  to  be  among 
the  most  characteristic  of  the  kind  ever  brought  to  that  city, 
and  that  admiring  crowds  were  gathered  around  them  at  all 
hours.  .  .  .  Winslow  Homer’s  strongly  defined  war  sketches 
are  examined  with  much  curiosity,  especially  the  well-known 
canvas,  ‘Prisoners  from  the  Front.’” 

The  praise  of  the  unnamed  Brussels  artist  of  celebrity  and 
merit  is  not  extravagant.  “  Among  the  most  characteristic  of 
the  kind”  is  even  a  little  bit  ambiguous.  But  it  is  quite  a 


EARLY  WORKS 


59 


gratifying  thing  to  have  an  admiring  crowd  in  front  of  one’s 
picture  at  all  hours :  that  at  least  is  a  substantial  and  com¬ 
forting  evidence  of  success. 

Homer  spent  ten  months  in  France.  At  the  end  of  that  time 
his  money  gave  out,  and  he  was  obliged  to  return  home.  He 
did  no  studying  and  no  serious  work  of  any  kind  worth  men¬ 
tioning  while  he  was  in  Paris,  and  it  is  probable  that  he  de¬ 
voted  most  of  his  time  to  sight-seeing  and  recreation.  He 
did  make  a  series  of  studies  of  the  figures  of  dancing  girls 
at  the  Jardin  Mabille  and  the  Casino  de  Paris,  somewhat  after 
the  manner  of  Degas’s  subjects,  though  totally  different  in 
style,  but  I  am  not  aware  that  he  ever  worked  these  up  into 
pictures.  The  two  drawings  of  Parisian  public  balls,  “  Danc¬ 
ing  at  the  Casino”  and  “  Dancing  at  the  Mabille,”  which  he 
sent  to  “  Harper’s  Weekly,”  and  which  were  published  on  Nov¬ 
ember  25,  1867,  were  almost  wholly  in  outline,  with  but  little 
shading.  In  one  of  these  drawings  the  Can- Can  is  in  progress 
for  the  special  delectation  of  tourists,  with  the  usual  feats  of 
high  kicking  by  the  paid  danseuses  ;  and  in  the  other  a  couple 
are  waltzing  madly,  the  man  having  spun  his  partner  so 
swiftly  that  both  her  feet  have  left  the  floor. 

What  he  did  not  do  while  he  was  in  France  is  somewhat 
significant.  He  did  not  enter  the  atelier  of  the  most  renowned 
French  master  ;  he  did  not  make  copies  of  the  famous  master¬ 
pieces  in  the  Louvre ;  he  did  not  go  to  Concarneau  or  to  Grez 
or  to  any  of  the  favorite  painting-grounds  of  the  young  Amer¬ 
ican  artists ;  and  he  did  not,  so  far  as  is  known,  make  many 
friends  among  his  fellow-artists.  That  he  visited  the  Louvre 
and  the  Luxembourg  and  the  Cluny  and  the  picture  galle¬ 
ries  of  the  international  exposition  may  be  taken  for  granted; 
but  what  he  thought  of  all  that  he  saw  there  he  never  told 
anybody.  It  is  a  fact  of  the  most  vital  import  that  the  great 


6o 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


works  of  the  masters  in  the  galleries  of  the  Old  World  made 
a  less  permanent  impression  upon  his  mind  than  the  three 
thousand  miles  of  ocean  that  he  had  to  cross,  going  and  com¬ 
ing.  Who  shall  say  that  he  was  not  manifesting  uncommon 
sagacity  in  giving  deeper  attention  to  the  works  of  Nature 
than  to  those  of  Man  ?  That  first  long  sea  voyage  was  un¬ 
questionably  one  of  the  factors  that  eventually  determined 
his  choice  of  motives,  although  it  was  not  until  the  eighties 
that  he  began  to  specialize  in  marine  painting  and  to  devote 
his  energies  solely  to  the  great  theme  with  which  his  name 
and  fame  were  to  be  associated. 

Soon  after  his  return  to  New  York,  he  contributed  to  “  Har¬ 
per’s  Weekly”  a  double-page  drawing  entitled  “Homeward 
Bound,”  representing  the  scene  on  the  deck  of  an  ocean  steam¬ 
ship,  with  the  figures  of  many  passengers.  The  observer  is  sup¬ 
posed  to  be  looking  forward  along  the  port  side  of  the  deck, 
and  the  ship  is  rolling  considerably  to  port.  One  sees  no 
steamer-chairs  such  as  are  so  universally  used  nowadays.  Sev¬ 
eral  officers  are  seen  on  the  bridge,  and  one  of  them  is  look¬ 
ing  through  a  marine  glass  at  a  school  of  porpoises  or 
dolphins  which  are  disporting  themselves  off  the  port  bow. 
This  interesting  drawing  was  published  on  December  21, 1867. 
Three  weeks  later  a  drawing  called  “  Art  Students  and  Copy¬ 
ists  in  the  Louvre  Gallery,  Paris,”  served  to  show  conclu¬ 
sively  where  the  artist  had  spent  a  good  part  of  his  time 
while  in  the  French  capital.  The  Long  Gallery  of  the  Louvre 
was  shown  in  perspective,  with  many  copyists  at  work,  both 
men  and  women.  Soon  after  his  return  to  New  York,  Homer 
met  J.  Foxcroft  Cole  and  Joseph  E.  Baker  in  Astor  Place,  and 
invited  them  to  come  into  his  University  Building  studio, 
where  he  showed  them  a  number  of  studies  of  dancing  girls ; 
there  was  also  a  drawing  of  one  of  the  rooms  in  the  Louvre 


BOY  WITH  SCYTHE 

From  the  drawing  belonging  to  the  Edward  W.  Hooper 
estate,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A .  Lawrence. 


BOYS  SWIMMING 

From  the  drawing  belonging  to  the  Edward  W.  Hooper 
estate,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Lawrence 


UK:  .  -  ■■ 

3HTY3S  HTIW  YOB 

i^ooR  .‘'(•I  bwwbll  a\W  o\  ’o$w<mota<S  'vvU  woYl 

.^stsvjjol  .k  X'Av^y^  vY  .v.QViocL  tsYotea. 


OYIMMIWfi  SY09 

.31  XnooibS.  asfo  q\  swimb  ssVi  wod 

y>«y-’»».I  .k  rYzssVo  v<5  .stoUod 


EARLY  WORKS 


61 


where  the  antique  marbles  are  exhibited.  Cole,  commenting 
on  Homer’s  naivete,  pointed  out  that  in  the  latter  drawing 
the  imperfections  of  the  statues  were  clearly  to  be  discerned. 

A  small  oil  painting  entitled  “Musical  Amateurs”  was  fin¬ 
ished  and  dated  in  1867.  It  is  a  picture  of  two  men  play¬ 
ing  violin  and  ’cello  in  a  studio  interior.  The  hands  are  poorly 
drawn,  and  the  figures  are  somewhat  lacking  in  modeling. 
It  is,  however,  executed  with  such  evident  sincerity  of  pur¬ 
pose  as  to  be  thoroughly  convincing,  despite  its  shortcom¬ 
ings.  “It  has  the  mark  of  a  man  who  was  in  dead  earnest,” 
remarks  J.  Nilsen  Laurvik,  “even  though  one  might  not  at 
that  time  have  been  able  to  predict  from  this  canvas  the  com¬ 
ing  master.” 

In  the  National  Academy  of  1868  Homer  exhibited  “The 
Studio,”  “  Picardie,”  “A  Study,”  and  “  Confederate  Prison¬ 
ers  at  the  Front,”  the  last-named  work  being  in  all  proba¬ 
bility  the  same  picture  as  the  “  Prisoners  from  the  Front,” 
first  shown  in  1866,  since  it  is  accredited  in  the  catalogue  to 
the  J.  Taylor  Johnston  collection.  It  would  be  considered  a 
most  exceptional,  indeed,  a  preposterous  thing,  nowadays, 
to  exhibit  the  same  picture  twice  within  two  years  in  the 
Academy ;  but  in  endeavoring  to  account  for  this  proceed¬ 
ing  I  suppose  we  must  remember  that  the  Academy  in  1868 
was  a  close  corporation,  with  more  or  less  of  a  family  at¬ 
mosphere,  and  it  is  also  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  by  com¬ 
mon  consent  this  picture  was  deemed  the  most  successful 
delineation  of  a  scene  from  the  Civil  War,  so  much  so  that 
its  reappearance  may  have  been  allowed  in  response  to 
something  like  a  popular  demand. 

The  “Harper’s  Weekly”  drawings  of  1868  included: 
“Winter  —  A  Skating  Scene,”  published  January  25  ;  “  St. 
Valentine’s  Day  —  The  Old  Story  in  All  Lands,”  published 


62 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


February  22  ;  “  The  Morning  Walk  —  Young  Ladies’  School 
Promenading  the  Avenue,”  published  March  28  ;  “  Fire¬ 
works  on  the  Night  of  the  Fourth  of  July,”  published  July 
11  (an  amusing  view  of  the  upturned  faces  of  the  crowd  illu¬ 
minated  by  the  glare  of  the  fireworks,  and  at  the  right  of 
the  foreground,  a  fallen  rocket-stick  striking  the  crown  of  a 
silk  hat,  jamming  it  down  over  the  head  of  the  astonished 
wearer) ;  “  New  England  Factory  Life —  ‘  Bell-Time,”’  pub¬ 
lished  July  25,  soon  after  one  of  his  occasional  visits  to  his 
brother  Charles,  at  Lawrence,  Massachusetts,  where  the 
great  army  of  operatives  is  seen  crossing  a  bridge  over  the 
canal  which  supplies  the  waterpower  to  one  of  the  huge 
mills  ;  and,  finally,  “  Our  Next  President,”  published  October 
31,  the  design  showing  a  group  of  five  figures,  two  men  and 
three  women,  drinking  a  patriotic  toast  to  General  Grant, 
whose  portrait  is  seen  on  the  wall. 

From  Lawrence  he  went  to  Belmont  to  visit  his  father  and 
mother,  and  after  a  few  days  there  he  journeyed  to  the 
White  Mountains  in  search  of  subjects  to  paint.  He  also 
went  to  Manchester,  Massachusetts,  and  Salem.  He  ex¬ 
hibited  at  the  National  Academy  of  Design  in  1869  but  one 
painting,  the  “  Manchester  Coast.”  His  black-and-white 
work  of  that  year  ranged  from  mountain  to  sea  subjects.  A 
spirited  drawing  of  seven  or  eight  sailors  aloft  taking  in  sail 
in  a  snow-storm,  while  far  below  them  we  see  the  after  part 
of  the  deck  with  two  men  at  the  wheel,  the  foaming  wake  of 
the  vessel,  and  a  dark  sea  and  sky,  was  published  January 
16,  and  had  for  its  title  “Winter  at  Sea  —  Taking  in  Sail  off 
the  Coast.”  It  gives  every  internal  evidence  of  being  drawn 
from  life  on  the  spot,  and  is,  I  believe,  the  first  drawing  of 
life  at  sea  on  a  sailing  vessel  made  by  the  artist. 

As  to  the  drawing  of  “  The  Summit  of  Mount  Washing- 


EARLY  WORKS 


63 


ton,”  it  depicts  tourists  (of  whom  the  artist  himself  was  one) 
on  horseback  and  afoot,  climbing  the  mountain,  by  way  of 
the  old  Crawford  bridle  path,  and  the  summit  of  the  moun¬ 
tain  looms  up  in  the  background  with  its  little  inn.  This 
drawing  was  made  before  the  completion  of  the  central  cog¬ 
rail  railroad  up  Mount  Washington,  the  invention  of  Syl¬ 
vester  Marsh,  which  was  finished,  however,  that  same  year. 
An  oil  painting  of  the  same  composition  bears  the  date  of 
1869,  and  was  exhibited  in  1870  under  the  title  of  “The 
White  Mountains.”  It  belongs  to  Mrs.  W.  H.  S.  Pearce  of 
Newton,  and  was  in  the  memorial  exhibition  of  1911  in  Bos¬ 
ton.  The  scene  is  at  the  base  of  the  cone,  where  a  group  of 
several  saddle  horses  are  standing.  The  tourists,  four  in 
number,  are  resting  just  before  beginning  the  last  stage  of  the 
climb.  All  around  are  the  huge  rocks  which  form  the  peak. 
Two  ladies  are  on  horseback,  and  the  two  gentlemen  who 
accompany  them  are  on  foot.  In  the  distance  and  above,  the 
summit  is  visible  through  a  rift  in  the  clouds.  The  figures 
and  the  horses  are  carefully  and  well  drawn,  and,  while  it 
would  be  extravagant  to  call  the  work  great,  it  is  assuredly 
a  remarkable  production  for  a  man  who  had  been  painting 
only  four  or  five  years. 

Some  of  the  “Harper’s  Weekly”  illustrations  of  1869  in¬ 
cluded  the  “  Christmas  Belles,”  January  2,  representing  a 
party  cf  five  young  women  and  one  man  sleighing  in  a  big 
three-seated  sleigh  ;  “The  New  Year — 1869,”  a  plump  boy 
on  a  bicycle  riding  through  a  paper  hoop  which  is  held  up  by 
a  coryphee,  while  poor  old  1868  is  being  borne  away  ig- 
nominiously  in  a  wheelbarrow  by  Father  Time  ;  and  by  way 
of  novelty,  a  court-room  scene,  “Jurors  Listening  to  Coun¬ 
sel,  Supreme  Court,  New  City  Hall,  New  York,”  February 
20,  of  which  the  editor  of  the  “Weekly”  truthfully  remarks 


64 


WINSLOW  HOMEiR 


that  “  the  picture  is  remarkable  for  its  delineation  of  char¬ 
acter,  apart  from  its  value  as  a  faithful  representation  of  life 
in  the  arena  of  jurisprudence.” 

The  year  1870  was  not  only  exceptionally  prolific,  but  it 
also  marked  an  appreciable  advance  in  respect  to  Homer’s 
art.  For  at  this  period  his  drawing  begins  to  improve  notice¬ 
ably.  No  less  than  eleven  of  his  paintings  were  exhibited 
at  the  National  Academy  of  Design.  They  were :  “  White 
Mountain  Wagon,”  “Sketch  from  Nature,”  “Mt.  Adams,” 
“Sail-Boat,”  “Salem  Harbor,”  “Lobster  Cove,”  “As You 
Like  It,”  “Sawkill  River,  Pa.,”  “Eagle  Head,  Manchester,” 
“The  White  Mountains,”  and  “  Manners  and  Customs  at  the 
Seaside.” 

Of  these  paintings,  that  which  is  perhaps  as  characteristic 
as  any  is  “The  Sail-Boat.”  He  repeated  this  motive  in  the 
form  of  a  watercolor  which  is  in  Mr.  Charles  S.  Homer’s  col¬ 
lection.  Many  a  Yankee  boy  has  been  fascinated  by  the 
glorious  suggestion  of  free  and  buoyant  movement  in  this 
little  picture,  the  luminous  and  bracing  look  of  the  air  and 
sea  and  sky,  the  keen  impression  of  a  big,  wholesome,  wide 
outdoor  world. 

At  the  same  time  Homer’s  indefatigable  pencil  was  as  busy 
as  ever  in  the  making  of  drawings  for  “  Harper’s  Weekly.” 
In  a  double-page  cartoon  published  on  January  8,  1870,  he 
gave  in  pictorial  form,  under  the  title  “  1860-1870,”  an 
epitome  of  American  history  for  the  decade  just  closed. 
His  review  embraced  the  great  events  of  the  War  for  the 
Union  and  the  period  immediately  following  the  close  of 
hostilities.  Some  of  the  important  features  of  the  war  were 
suggested,  such  as  the  firing  on  Fort  Sumter,  the  uprising 
of  the  North,  the  fight  between  the  Monitor  and  the  Mer- 
rimac,  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  and  the  Surrender 


RAID  ON  A  SAND-SWALLOW  COLONY  — “HOW 
MANY  EGGS?” 

From  a  drawing  engraved  on  wood  for  Harper’s  Weekly, 
June  ij,  1874 


* 


WOH  ‘ '  —  Y7:OJCO  WOJ  v  T  A  WS-rG  VI  AS  A  T/iO  Cl  I  AH 

7MAM  ' 

tybf99TA/  ?.'ioqi£H  jboow  «o  §su'ism»  » 

,\x  smn. 


EARLY  WORKS 


65 


of  Lee  at  Appomattox.  He  followed  this  historical  essay 
with  an  unusual  example  of  ethical  symbolism,  under  the 
title  of  “The  Tenth  Commandment,”  which  was  published 
on  March  12.  In  the  centre  of  the  design  we  see  a  wife 
kneeling  at  prayer  in  church  ;  and  in  the  four  corners  of  the 
composition  are  a  house,  a  maid,  a  servant,  and  an  ox  and 
an  ass.  A  drawing  published  on  April  30  represented  “  Spring 
Farm  Work — -Grafting.”  “Spring  Blossoms”  appeared  on 
May  21  :  this  rustic  scene  depicted  a  stone  wall  and  a  way- 
side  water-trough  under  the  boughs  of  an  apple-tree  in  full 
blossom  ;  on  the  wall  three  country  children  were  seated. 
The  bare-foot  boy  sitting  on  one  end  of  the  trough  dangled 
one  foot  in  the  water ;  and  a  young  woman  was  leaning 
against  the  wall.  It  was  signed  with  the  artist’s  initials  on 
the  sail  of  a  tiny  toy  sail-boat  which  floated  on  the  water. 
“The  Dinner  Horn”  was  published  in  “Harper’s  Weekly” 
for  June  11.  Just  outside  the  door  of  a  farmhouse  the  buxom 
figure  of  a  young  woman,  with  her  back  turned  towards  the 
observer,  stood  as  she  sounded  the  dinner  call  to  the  men 
who  were  at  work  in  the  fields.  This  figure  was  well  drawn, 
stood  on  its  feet  firmly,  and  the  drapery,  which  was  blown  by 
the  breeze,  was  excellently  treated.  The  effect  of  the  sun¬ 
light  on  the  figure,  too,  was  observed  with  the  most  studious 
veracity.  The  last  of  the  series  of  drawings  for  1870  was 
“  On  the  Bluff  at  Long  Branch,  at  the  Bathing  Hour,”  pub¬ 
lished  on  August  6.  A  group  of  five  ladies  were  about  to 
descend  a  flight  of  wooden  steps  to  the  bath-houses  on 
the  edge  of  the  beach  below.  The  strong  sea-breeze  played 
pranks  with  their  voluminous  flounced  skirts.  A  glimpse  of 
the  beach  was  given,  with  many  figures  of  bathers  entering 
the  surf ;  and  on  the  ocean  were  a  number  of  sailing  craft 
in  the  distance. 


66 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


In  1871,  Homer  contributed  a  series  of  full-page  drawings 
to  “  Every  Saturday,”  a  short-lived  weekly  pictorial  paper 
published  by  James  R.  Osgood  &  Co.,  of  Boston.  This  series 
dealt  with  various  everyday  scenes  of  rural  life  and  manners, 
hunting,  maritime  motives,  and  the  episodes  of  a  summer  re¬ 
sort.  The  subjects  included  the  following  titles  :  “  A  Winter 
Morning,  —  Shovelling  Out,”  “  Deer-Stalking  in  the  Adiron- 
dacks  in  Winter,”  “  Lumbering  in  Winter,”  “  A  Country 
Store,  —  Getting  Weighed,”  “  At  Sea,  —  Signalling  a  Pass¬ 
ing  Steamer,”  “Bathing  at  Long  Branch,  —  ‘Oh,  Ain’t  it 
Cold  !’  ”  and  “  Cutting  a  Figure.”  These  drawings  as  pub¬ 
lished  were  approximately  nine  by  twelve  inches  in  dimen¬ 
sions,  and  were  engraved  on  wood  by  W.  J.  Linton,  J.  P. 
Davis,  G.  A.  Avery,  and  other  engravers  of  the  period. 

“A  Winter  Morning,  —  Shovelling  Out”  represented  a 
farmhouse  in  Northern  New  England  on  the  morning  after 
a  heavy  fall  of  snow.  A  man  and  a  boy  in  the  foreground 
were  making  a  path  through  the  drifts  from  the  house  door 
to  the  road,  or,  perhaps,  to  the  barn.  As  they  stood  on  the 
ground  the  surface  of  the  snow  came  nearly  to  the  level  of 
the  shoulders  of  one  of  the  shovelers,  and  even  with  the 
hips  of  the  other  one.  Nearer  to  the  house  a  woman  holding 
a  plate  in  her  hand  was  throwing  crumbs  to  the  birds.  The 
sky  was  still  clouded  in  part,  and  was  of  a  darker  tone  than 
the  snow  beneath,  though  in  the  foreground  there  were  some 
cast  shadows  which  indicated  that  the  sun  was  breaking 
through  the  clouds.  A  few  large  flakes  were,  however,  still 
falling.  The  values  in  the  snow  were  subtly  rendered,  and  the 
wintry  atmosphere  vividly  suggested.  The  fantastic  arabesque 
of  an  old  apple-tree  in  front  of  the  farmhouse  was  drawn 
with  much  care,  its  network  of  boughs  and  twigs,  each  with 
its  silver  line  of  sticky  snow  adhering  to  the  upper  side, 


EARLY  WORKS 


67 


being  relieved  against  the  sullen  sky.  The  action  of  the 
figures  was  given  with  some  stiffness,  but  was  sufficiently 
definite  to  tell  its  story. 

“  Deer-Stalking  in  the  Adirondacks  in  Winter,”  the  first 
subject  taken  from  the  North  Woods  by  Homer,  who  after¬ 
wards  found  many  congenial  motives  there,  showed  a  pair 
of  hunters  on  snow-shoes,  running,  an  action  which  is  as  far 
removed  from  the  poetry  of  motion  as  anything  can  well  be. 
In  the  distance,  at  the  right  of  the  composition,  was  a  deer, 
and  a  dog  was  springing  at  its  throat,  while  a  second  hound 
was  coming  up  a  short  way  back.  The  forest  where  this 
episode  was  taking  place  was  for  the  most  part  without  un¬ 
derbrush,  and  was  desolate  in  its  wintry  aspect. 

“  Lumbering  in  Winter”  showed  a  pine  forest,  with  two  fig¬ 
ures  of  brawny  lumbermen.  The  man  in  the  foreground  wore 
snow-shoes,  and  stood  with  his  axe  swung  back  over  his 
shoulder,  in  the  act  of  felling  a  giant  tree,  which  was  almost 
ready  to  topple  over.  A  few  yards  farther  away  was  the  stout 
trunk  of  a  tree  already  cut  down,  on  which  stood  the  second 
lumberman,  who  was  cutting  it  in  two  in  the  middle. 

“A  Country  Store,  —  Getting  Weighed”  had  a  group  of 
five  figures  in  it.  There  were  four  ladies,  one  of  whom  was 
standing  on  the  scales,  while  a  gentleman  adjusted  the 
weights,  and  the  others  awaited  their  turns.  The  fashions  in 
dress  of  1871  are  interestingly  recalled  by  this  drawing.  The 
flounced  skirts  and  overskirts  are  quite  characteristic  of  the 
period,  as  are  the  small,  low-crowned  hats.  The  weighing 
was  going  on  in  the  midst  of  the  variegated  stock  of  soap, 
fresh  eggs,  new  brooms,  flour,  rakes,  clothes-lines,  lard,  etc., 
of  the  country  store,  which  also,  of  course,  contained  the 
post-office. 

“At  Sea, — Signalling  a  Passing  Steamer”  was  a  dra- 


68 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


matic  drawing  of  an  incident  which  had  more  novelty  than 
the  preceding  motives,  and  was  picturesque  in  a  different 
and  more  emphatic  sense.  It  was  night,  and  the  black  hull 
of  a  transatlantic  liner  loomed  through  the  shadows.  On  the 
bridge  were  the  figures  of  four  officers.  One  of  them  had 
just  discharged  a  rocket  from  the  starboard  end  of  the  bridge, 
the  sudden  glare  lightening  up  the  waves  far  beyond  the  bow, 
and  bringing  into  sharp  relief  the  shrouds  and  stays,  masts 
and  yards,  of  the  fore  part  of  the  vessel.  This  instantaneous 
effect,  which  must  have  been  drawn  from  memory,  was  given 
with  graphic  intensity.  One  felt  that  the  blinding  glare  of 
the  fireworks  would  fade  and  die  away  as  quickly  as  it  had 
come.  Dark  shapes  of  several  seamen  on  the  main  deck  were 
visible  ;  they  were  peering  through  the  darkness  for  the  an¬ 
swering  signals. 

“Bathing  at  Long  Branch, —  ‘Oh,  Ain’t  it  Cold!”’  de¬ 
picted  a  group  of  three  buxom  girls  in  the  water;  having 
waded  out  to  a  depth  of  about  two  feet,  they  were  hesitating 
to  take  the  final  chilly  plunge.  Two  bolder  bathers  were 
shoulder-deep  a  little  distance  away,  and  several  vessels  were 
visible  on  the  far  horizon.  “  Cutting  a  Figure  ”  was  a  double¬ 
page  drawing,  in  which  a  pretty  young  woman  was  just 
completing  an  elaborate  manoeuvre  on  the  ice  of  a  large  skat- 
ing-pond  in  the  country  ;  a  few  other  skaters  being  visible 
in  the  distance  at  the  left.  As  will  have  been  noted,  this  was 
a  favorite  subject  with  Homer,  who  fully  appreciated  the 
graceful  possibilities  of  it,  and  returned  to  it  several  times. 


SEESAW  —  GLOUCESTER,  MASSACHUSETTS 
From  a  drawing  engraved  on  wood  for  Harper’s  Weekly, 
September  12,  1874 


WAITING  FOR  A  BITE 
From  a  drawing  on  wood  by  Lagarde  for  Harper’s 
Weekly,  August  22,  1874 


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CHAPTER  V 

LIFE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 
1872-1876.  JEtat.  36-40 

Studio  in  West  Tenth  Street  —  “  New  England  Country  School” —  “  Snap 
the  Whip A  Summer  on  Ten-Pound  Island — -The  Gloucester  Water- 
colors-—  Urban  Subjects  —  Last  of  the  “Harper’s  Weekly”  Drawings — “  The 
Two  Guides  ”  —  Relations  with  La  Farge. 

MORE  and  more  the  artist  turned  his  steps  towards 
the  country  in  search  of  the  kind  of  subjects  that 
appealed  to  him.  He  endured  the  city,  but  he  was 
not  at  home  there.  He  made  frequent  trips  to  little  villages 
in  New  York  State  and  in  New  England  in  the  early  seven¬ 
ties,  and  never  returned  empty-handed.  One  of  the  villages 
that  he  was  fond  of  going  to  was  Hurley,  New  York,  four 
miles  west  of  Kingston.  He  found  some  of  his  most  interest¬ 
ing  rural  subjects  in  this  Ulster  County  village,  in  the  south¬ 
ern  part  of  the  Catskills.  When  he  went  to  Belmont,  Mas¬ 
sachusetts,  to  visit  his  parents,  he  usually  did  some  work  in 
that  neighborhood.  I  have  seen  an  oil  painting  that  he  made 
of  the  famous  and  very  venerable  trees  known  as  the  Waver- 
ley  oaks,  at  Waverley,  Massachusetts.  Against  the  sky  rise 
the  majestic  outlines  of  these  monster  oaks,  naked,  or  nearly 
so,  forming  a  complicated  pattern  of  dark  lines.  The  fore¬ 
ground  has  blackened  sadly ;  one  can  barely  discern  in  its 
depths  of  shadow  the  figure  of  a  boy  driving  home  three  or 
four  cows.  The  work  is  chiefly  interesting  for  its  extremely 
careful  and  loving  drawing  of  the  wide-spreading  primaeval 
trees. 


70 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


In  1872  Homer  moved  his  studio  to  No.  51  West  Tenth 
Street.  At  the  National  Academy  exhibition  of  that  year  he 
showed  five  oil  paintings,  namely,  “  The  Mill,”  “  The  Coun¬ 
try  School,”  “  Crossing  the  Pasture,”  “  Rainy  Day  in  Camp,” 
and  “  The  Country  Store.”  A  drawing  entitled  “  Making 
Hay,”  which  was  published  in  “  Harper’s  Weekly”  for  July 
6,  1872,  was,  I  believe,  made  during  one  of  the  visits  to 
Belmont.  The  editor  of  the  “  Weekly  ”  enthusiastically  re¬ 
marked  :  — 

“  Mr.  Winslow  Homer’s  beautiful  picture  is  a  poem  in  itself, 
a  summer  idyl,  suggestive  of  all  that  is  most  pleasant  and 
attractive  in  rural  life.” 

One  can  hardly  agree  with  this  judgment.  Making  hay  is 
pleasant  and  attractive  to  the  spectator,  perhaps,  but  it  is 
hard  and  hot  work  for  the  haymaker ;  moreover,  this  draw¬ 
ing  was  far  from  being  one  of  Homer’s  best.  It  showed  a 
field  sloping  gradually  towards  a  stream  at  the  right.  Two 
farmers  were  mowing  by  hand.  One  of  them  was  “  in  the 
shade  of  the  old  apple-tree”  in  the  foreground,  where  two 
children  were  sitting  on  the  ground,  near  a  pail  and  a  tin 
drinking-cup.  Homer  told  the  following  anecdote  to  Albion 
H.  Bicknell  concerning  the  circumstances  attending  the  mak¬ 
ing  of  this  drawing.  One  warm  Sunday  morning,  in  Belmont, 
the  artist’s  father,  who  was  a  regular  church-goer,  asked 
Winslow  if  he  was  going  to  church,  and  the  latter  replied 
in  the  negative.  For  some  reason,  Mr.  Homer  slipped  out  of 
church  earlier  than  usual,  and  made  an  unexpected  return 
to  the  house.  After  a  look  around  the  premises,  he  found 
Winslow  drawing  the  haymaking  scene  in  the  open  air,  back 
of  the  barn,  where  the  man  of  all  work  was  posing  with  a 
scythe  as  his  model.  The  elder  Homer  was  much  displeased 
by  this  Sabbath-breaking  proceeding. 


LIFE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 


7i 


Two  other  drawings  were  published  in  the  course  of  the 
year  1872.  In  August  “Harper’s  Weekly”  contained  an 
illustration  entitled  “  On  the  Beach  —  Two  Are  Company, 
Three  Are  None,”  made  to  accompany  an  anonymous  poem 
which  puts  this  melancholy  avowal  into  the  mouth  of  the 
principal  figure,  a  woman :  — 

“And  so  at  last  I  left  them  there, 

And  all  unheeded  went  away. 

Lest  e’en  the  birds  should  read  my  heart, 

As  I  had  read  myself  that  day.” 

I  feel  sure  that  it  will  not  be  deemed  extravagant  praise  to 
say  that  the  illustration  is  better  than  the  poem. 

On  September  14,  “  Harper’s  Weekly  ”  contained  an  en¬ 
graving  after  a  painting  by  Homer  entitled  “  Under  the  Falls, 
Catskill  Mountains.”  The  only  oil  painting  exhibited  by  him 
at  the  Academy  of  1873  was  “  A  New  England  Country 
School.”  This  characteristic  composition,  in  which  a  pretty 
young  school-teacher,  who  was  standing,  book  in  hand,  be¬ 
hind  her  pine  desk,  in  the  centre  of  the  picture,  hearing  her 
pupils  recite  their  lesson,  was  the  chief  figure,  attracted  much 
favorable  attention.  The  class  was  a  small  one,  consisting  of 
four  boys  and  three  girls.  Unoccupied  forms  and  desks  on 
either  hand  suggested  provision  for  a  larger  class  in  the  win¬ 
ter  season.  The  walls  were  bare,  save  fora  blackboard  behind 
the  school-mistress  and  a  window  on  either  side  revealing 
a  glimpse  of  the  green  and  sunny  country  outside.  Of  the 
work  it  has  been  justly  said  that  the  artist  inspired  it  with 
the  severe  simplicity  of  a  serious  life  and  people  and  yet  re¬ 
conciled  it  with  picturesqueness.  It  was  thoroughly  realistic, 
grave  without  harshness,  and  held  a  hint  of  romance  in  the 
comely  young  teacher  with  the  June  rose  flaming  on  her 
desk.  “A  New  England  Country  School”  was  bought  by 


72 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


Thomas  B.  Clarke  of  New  York.  In  1891  it  was  exhibited, 
together  with  eleven  other  pictures  by  Homer,  at  the  Penn¬ 
sylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  Philadelphia.  It  was  also 
one  of  the  pictures  by  Homer  exhibited  at  the  Paris  Interna¬ 
tional  Exposition  of  1878. 

No  less  than  eleven  drawings  were  contributed  to  “  Har¬ 
per’s  Weekly  ”  in  the  course  of  the  year  1873.  The  first  of 
these  was  an  illustration  of  one  of  the  painful  incidents  of 
the  wreck  of  the  steamship  Atlantic  of  the  White  Star  Line. 
It  represented  a  rocky  coast,  with  the  dead  figure  of  a  woman, 
partly  clothed,  lying  on  a  ledge,  where  it  had  been  washed 
up  by  the  tide.  The  body  was  just  being  discovered  by  a 
fisherman.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Atlantic,  bound 
from  Liverpool  for  New  York,  was  wrecked  on  the  rocks  of 
Mars  Head,  N.  S.,  April  1,  1873,  and  five  hundred  and  sixty- 
two  lives  were  lost.  Homer’s  drawing  was  published  on  April 
26;  it  was  called  “The  Wreck  of  the  Atlantic  —  Cast  up 
by  the  Sea.” 

“The  Noon  Recess,”  published  on  June  28,  recalled  the 
painting  of  “The  New  England  Country  School,”  which  has 
been  described.  A  small  bare-foot  boy  who  had  been  kept  in 
the  schoolroom  as  a  punishment  for  some  transgression  was 
sitting  on  a  bench,  with  his  face  buried  in  a  book.  The  school¬ 
mistress,  who  looked  tired,  cross,  and  worried,  also  sat  on  a 
bench,  resting  her  elbow  on  a  long  desk  or  table.  Through  an 
open  window  there  was  a  glimpse  of  children  at  play  out-of- 
doors.  A  sufficient  idea  of  the  quality  of  the  poem  which 
went  with  this  drawing  may  be  derived  from  the  first  verse  : 

Yes,  hide  your  little  tear-stained  face 

Behind  that  well-thumbed  book,  my  boy  ; 

Your  troubled  thoughts  are  all  intent 
Upon  the  game  your  mates  enjoy. 


THE  SAND  DUNE 


From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Arthur  B. 
Homer.  Painted  at  Marshfield,  Massachusetts.  Wins¬ 
low  Homer's  mother  posed  for  the  figure.  Photograph  by 
Chester  A .  Lawrence,  Boston 


ON  THE  BEACH  AT  MARSHFIELD 
From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Arthur  B. 
Homer.  Photograph  by  Chester  A .  Lawrence,  Boston 


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LIFE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 


73 


While  you  this  recess  hour  must  spend 
On  study  bench  without  a  friend. 

“The  Bathers,”  from  a  picture  by  Winslow  Homer,  was 
published  on  August  2.  Not  every  one  could  agree  with 
“Harper’s  Weekly  ”  when  it  remarked,  in  reference  to  this 
drawing,  that  “the  pretty  figures  in  the  foreground  of  Mr. 
Homer’s  charming  picture  illustrate  the  advantages  of  a 
costume  peculiarly  adapted  to  a  graceful  exit  from  the 
bath.” 

“The  Nooning”  was  published  on  August  16.  Near  a 
white  farmhouse  three  barefoot  boys  and  a  dog  are  sprawl¬ 
ing  on  the  grass.  The  dog  is  gnawing  a  bone.  In  the  back¬ 
ground,  two  houses,  with  trees  near  them,  and  clothes  hung 
out  on  the  line  to  dry.  “  Sea-Side  Sketches  — A  Clam-Bake  ” 
was  published  a  week  later.  A  dozen  little  boys  are  seen  on 
a  rocky  beach  ;  more  than  half  of  them  are  clustering  about 
a  fire  ;  the  others  are  bringing  water  and  driftwood  for  fuel ; 
in  the  background  is  the  sea. 

“Snap  the  Whip,”  dated  1872,  was  reproduced  in  a  highly 
satisfactory  double-page  wood  engraving  in  “  Harper’s 
Weekly”  for  September  20,  1873.  It  measures  twenty-two 
and  one  quarter  inches  high  by  thirty-six  inches  wide.  This 
picture  was  bought  by  Mr.  John  H.  Sherwood,  and  at  the 
sale  of  his  collection  in  1879  it  passed  into  the  possession  of 
Mr.  Parke  Godwin.  It  is  now  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Rich¬ 
ard  H.  Ewart.  Nothing,  not  even  the  “  New  England 
Country  School,”  had  been  quite  so  racy  of  the  soil  as  this 
sturdy  picture  of  a  line  of  nine  or  ten  barefoot  boys  holding 
hands  and  racing  across  a  level  common  in  front  of  a  little 
rustic  schoolhouse  among  the  hills.  The  boys  at  the  right  of 
the  line  have  made  a  sudden  halt,  and  the  two  victims  at  the 
left  end  are  sent  tumbling  head-over-heels  on  the  green- 


74 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


sward.  Beyond,  at  the  left,  are  two  little  girls  with  a  hoop 
and  other  children  at  play.  The  landscape  in  “  Snap  the 
Whip  ”  is  extremely  rough  and  rugged,  and  unmistakably 
of  Northern  New  England.  There  is  something  pungent  and 
rude  and  bracing  in  the  uncompromising  naturalism  of  it. 
How  it  must  have  brought  back  to  many  a  town-dweller  in 
1872  the  recollection  of  boyhood  days  1  It  was  lent  to  the 
Philadelphia  Centennial  Exposition  of  1876,  and  to  the  Paris 
International  Exposition  of  1878 ;  and  was  illustrated  in  line 
in  the  Sherwood  catalogue  of  1879.  It  reappeared  in  the 
New  York  Memorial  Exhibition  of  19 11. 

The  watercolor  drawings  entitled  “Berry  Pickers”  and 
“  Boys  Wading,”  which  belonged  to  the  collection  of  Mrs. 
Lawson  Valentine  of  New  York,  are  dated  1873.  The  “Berry 
Pickers,”  which  w^as  painted  in  the  summer  of  1873,  proba¬ 
bly  near  Gloucester,  represents  a  rocky  field  with  a  number 
of  children  carrying  tin  pails  and  picking  berries  near  the 
seashore.  At  the  left  a  girl  is  leaning  against  a  gray  boulder, 
holding  her  pail  in  her  right  hand.  She  wears  a  dark  skirt, 
a  yellowish  apron  and  blouse  trimmed  with  red,  and  a  straw 
hat  with  a  brown  ribbon.  The  head  and  shoulders  of  another 
girl  appear  above  the  boulder  at  the  extreme  left.  Two  boys 
and  a  girl  are  seated  on  the  grass.  The  little  girl  in  the  im¬ 
mediate  foreground  in  the  centre  of  the  picture,  with  her 
back  toward  the  spectator,  wears  a  yellow  dress ;  facing  her 
at  the  right  is  a  boy  in  brown  trousers  and  vest,  white  shirt¬ 
sleeves,  and  a  straw  hat ;  while  the  other  boy,  seen  from  the 
back,  has  dark  trousers  and  a  white  shirt.  Beyond,  at  the 
right,  two  other  figures  are  suggested.  The  ground  is  cov¬ 
ered  with  low  bushes  and  wild  flowers.  In  the  distance  is  a 
line  of  blue  water,  and  sail-boats  are  on  the  horizon  at  the 
right. 


LIFE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 


75 


“  Boys  Wading  ”  shows  a  sandy  beach  in  the  foreground. 
In  the  shallow  water  two  boys  stand  knee-deep,  bending 
over  and  rolling  up  their  trousers.  The  one  at  the  right,  with 
his  back  toward  the  observer,  wears  gray  trousers,  a  white 
shirt,  and  a  brown  hat ;  the  one  at  the  left,  seen  in  profile, 
facing  his  companion,  wears  a  straw  hat,  light  brown  trou¬ 
sers  and  vest,  with  white  shirt-sleeves.  In  the  background 
is  a  dock  with  sheds,  and  a  two-masted  green  schooner  with 
sails  down  is  moored  alongside  the  dock.  This  was  painted 
at  Gloucester.  Both  of  the  watercolors  were  in  the  New 
York  Memorial  Exhibition  of  1911. 

There  is  something  positively  charming  about  the  naivete 
with  which  these  pictures  of  country  children  are  painted.  I 
cannot  analyze  it.  In  point  of  method,  these  Gloucester 
watercolors  of  1873  are  literally  watercolor  drawings ;  that 
is  to  say,  they  are,  first,  drawings,  and  then  colored  ;  and, 
while  they  are  very  far  from  having  the  breadth  and  power 
of  the  later  watercolors,  their  precision  of  draughtsmanship, 
the  closeness  of  observation  displayed,  and  the  adorable 
genuineness  of  the  types,  make  them  most  admirable  and 
interesting. 

That  summer  of  1873  was  a  fruitful  time  and  must  have 
been  a  happy  season.  Homer,  by  a  happy  inspiration,  on 
reaching  Gloucester,  had  “  persuaded  Mrs.  Merrill,  the  light¬ 
house-keeper’s  wife,  to  take  him  in,”  as  a  boarder,  at  her 
house  on  Ten-Pound  Island,  in  Gloucester  harbor;  and 
there  he  lived  for  the  whole  summer,  rowing  over  to  the 
town  only  when  in  need  of  materials  or  in  search  of  fresh 
subjects.  “  The  freedom  from  intrusion  which  he  found  in 
this  little  spot  was  precisely  to  his  liking,  and  here  he  painted 
a  large  number  of  watercolors  of  uniform  size,  but  of  a  wide 
range  of  boldly  conceived  and  vigorously  executed  subjects. 


76 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


No  experiment,  however  fraught  with  risk  of  failure,  had  any 
terrors  for  him.  He  painted  absolutely  as  he  saw,  entirely 
unafraid,  caring  for  nothing  so  much  as  his  freedom  to  ex¬ 
press  himself  with  unfettered  independence.  Failures  were 
to  be  found  when  this  notable  group  of  watercolors  was  shown 
in  a  Boston  gallery  (this  may  have  been  in  about  1878),  but 
they  had  much  of  the  significance  of  Rubinstein’s  false  notes 
on  the  piano.  On  the  other  hand,  the  successes — and  they 
were  far  the  larger  number  —  showed,  as  Emerson  said,  ‘the 
devouring  eye  and  the  portraying  hand.’  Most  of  these  ad¬ 
mirable  little  pictures  were  eagerly  bought  by  Boston  admir¬ 
ers,  the  prices  ranging  from  seventy-five  to  one  hundred 
dollars  each.”  1 

Two  of  the  best  of  the  “Harper’s  Weekly”  drawings  of 
this  period  were  “Gloucester  Harbor”  and  “Ship-Building, 
Gloucester  Harbor.”  In  the  former  drawing,  published  Sep¬ 
tember  27,  1873,  there  were  two  dories  in  the  foreground,  with 
seven  boys  on  board.  In  the  middle  distance  were  fishing 
schooners ;  and  many  sails  were  seen  on  the  horizon.  The 
play  of  the  reflections  in  the  water,  and  the  drawing  of  the 
boats,  were  equally  admirable.  Still  more  effective  and  strik¬ 
ing  was  the  ship-building  scene,  which  was  published  Octo¬ 
ber  11,  1873.  A  schooner  was  on  the  stocks,  under  construc¬ 
tion,  and  many  laborers  were  busy  about  the  hull,  caulking, 
planing,  hammering,  boring,  etc.  In  the  foreground  were  five 
boys,  two  of  them  making  toy  boats,  and  the  others  gather¬ 
ing  chips  for  kindling-wood.  The  light-and-shade  effect  was 
very  handsome. 

Three  more  “  Harper’s  Weekly”  drawings  were  pub¬ 
lished  in  November  and  December,  1873.  These  were: 

1  “Some  Recollections  of  Winslow  Homer,”  by  J.  Eastman  Chase:  Harper's 
Weekly,  October  22,  1910. 


THE  CARNIVAL 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  N.  C. 
Matthews,  Baltimore,  Maryland 


THE  VISIT  FROM  THE  OLD  MISTRESS 
From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
National  Gallery  of  Art,  Washington.  William  T.  Evans' 

gift 


JAVimiAO  3HT 

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v 


LIFE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 


77 


“Dad ’s  Coming,”  November  i,  “  The  Last  Days  of  Harvest,” 
December  6,  and  “The  Morning  Bell,”  December  13.  In 
“The  Last  Days  of  Harvest”  two  lads  were  husking  corn  in 
the  field,  while  at  a  little  distance  two  men  were  loading 
pumpkins  on  a  wagon.  The  two  other  drawings  were  made 
as  illustrations  to  poems. 

“Dad’s  Coming”  was  used  as  the  motive  for  a  painting 
that  was  finished  at  about  the  same  time,  and  was  exhibited 
at  the  National  Academy  of  1874.  In  this  composition  a 
mother  with  two  children,  one  of  them  an  infant,  was  waiting 
on  the  beach  for  the  arrival  of  her  sailor-husband.  Spars, 
dories,  nets,  and  similar  fishermen’s  belongings,  were  strewed 
about  the  foreground,  and  in  the  background  was  the  sea. 
Three  other  paintings  were  sent  to  the  Academy  by  Homer 
in  1874:  “School Time,”  “Girl,”  and  “Sunday  Morning.”  A 
watercolor  entitled  “  In  the  Garden”  is  of  this  year.  A  gar¬ 
dener,  leaning  against  the  wall  of  a  country  house,  stood 
talking  to  a  maid  who  was  looking  out  of  a  window.  There 
was  a  contrast  of  the  red  brick  wall  and  the  redder  shirt  of 
the  man.  Some  flowers  were  relieved  with  fine  effect  against 
the  white  plaster,  and  to  the  left  a  cat  was  stealing  silently 
through  the  grass. 

During  the  winter  and  spring  of  1874  Homer  busied  him¬ 
self  with  a  series  of  urban  illustrations,  and  he  contributed 
four  of  these  New  York  City  subjects  to  “  Harper’s  Weekly” 
in  February,  March,  and  April.  As  we  have  already  seen,  the 
artist  was  far  from  having  ignored  the  pictorial  possibilities 
of  the  city.  His  “  Station-House  Lodgers,”  published  Feb¬ 
ruary  7,  showed  the  interior  of  a  large  basement  room  in  a 
police  station,  the  floor  being  covered  by  the  recumbent  fig¬ 
ures  of  sleeping  men.  On  February  28  his  drawing  of  “The 
Watch-Tower”  maintained  by  the  fire  department  of  that  day 


78 


WIN  SLOW  HOMER 


at  the  corner  of  Spring  and  Varick  streets,  was  published. 
“  The  Chinese  in  New  York,”  March  7,  was  a  scene  in  a  Bax¬ 
ter  Street  club-house  ;  and  “  New  York  Charities,”  April  18, 
was  a  drawing  of  St.  Barnabas  House,  in  Mulberry  Street. 
After  this  he  was  ready  to  turn  his  back  on  the  city  for  a  good 
long  summer  campaign,  which  took  him  to  Gloucester,  Long 
Branch,  and  presently  to  the  Adirondacks,  a  region  which 
was  to  yield  him  many  rich  and  congenial  motives  for  pic¬ 
tures. 

The  rural  scenes  in  “  Harper’s  Weekly  ”  for  1874  exhibited 
the  same  distinct  advance  in  light-and-shade  that  has  been 
noted  in  reference  to  those  of  the  preceding  year.  The  “  Raid 
on  a  Sand-Swallow  Colony — ‘  How  Many  Eggs?  ’  ”  published 
June  13,  presented  a  fine  brisk  effect  of  outdoor  light  and  at¬ 
mosphere.  It  represented  the  summit  of  a  great  sand  dune, 
the  top  of  which  was  tufted  with  coarse  and  wiry  grasses  ;  at 
the  left  a  glimpse  of  the  ocean  ;  four  boys  had  climbed  to  the 
upper  part  of  the  steep  slope  wheie  there  were  numerous 
holes  in  the  sand-bank,  the  abodes  of  the  sand-swallows, 
which  are  being  robbed  of  their  eggs.1  “Gathering  Berries,” 
published  July  11,  contained  eight  figures  of  country  boys 
and  girls  berrying  in  an  old  pasture  near  the  seashore.  All 
but  one  of  them  were  intent  upon  their  work.  One  little  girl 
was  standing  up,  leaning  against  a  boulder,  and  holding  a 
tin  pail  in  her  left  hand ;  possibly  she  had  filled  her  pail  first 
and  was  waiting  for  the  rest.  The  sky  was  partly  overcast ; 
a  schooner  in  the  distance  was  at  the  left ;  the  moving  ribbons 
on  the  little  girls’  hats  indicated  a  breeze.  This  drawing  differs 
only  in  trivial  details  from  the  watercolor  called  “  Berry  Pick¬ 
ers,”  in  Mrs.  Lawson  Valentine’s  collection.  “On  the  Beach 

1  A  watercolor  version  of  the  subject  is  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Edmund  H. 
Garrett  of  Boston. 


LIFE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 


79 


at  Long  Branch — The  Children’s  Hour,”  published  August 
15,  showed  a  group  of  two  nurse-maids,  a  mother,  and  two 
children  in  the  foreground,  with  many  other  figures  farther 
removed  from  the  foreground ;  the  sea  and  a  steamer  in  the 
offing;  bath-houses  and  the  bluff  at  the  right.  “Waiting  for 
a  Bite,”  published  August  22,  was  an  intensely  characteristic 
drawing,  of  extraordinary  breadth  and  carrying  force.  Here 
were  three  boys  perched  comfortably  on  an  old  fallen  trunk 
of  an  uprooted  tree  which  projected  most  conveniently  over 
the  shallow  water  of  a  secluded  pond,  where  lily  pads 
abounded,  and  cat-tails  grew  in  the  still  coves,  and  the  back¬ 
ground  was  closed  in  by  thick  woods.  Two  of  the  boys  were 
supplied  with  poles  and  lines,  and  one  of  them  was  fishing, 
while  the  other  was  baiting  his  hook.  A  third  boy,  lying  flat 
on  his  stomach,  was  watching  operations.  “Seesaw,  Glouces¬ 
ter,  Massachusetts,”  published  September  12,  contained  nine 
figures  of  boys  and  girls.  Three  girls  were  sitting  on  the  bot¬ 
tom  of  an  overturned  dory,  playing  at  “Cat’s-Cradle,”  in  the 
foreground.  Just  beyond  them,  six  small  boys  had  arranged 
a  seesaw,  consisting  of  a  long  plank  balanced  on  a  rock. 
While  one  of  the  boys  stood  in  the  middle,  the  rest  were 
seated  on  the  two  ends  of  the  plank,  seasawing.  The  back¬ 
ground  was  a  picturesque  jumble  of  shanties,  wharves,  etc., 
with  the  harbor  at  the  right.  “  Flirting  on  the  Seashore  and  on 
the  Meadow,”  published  September  19,  was  divided  into  two 
panels.  In  the  upper  panel,  a  moonlight  evening  on  the  beach, 
a  man  and  a  woman  were  sitting  on  the  sand  ;  in  the  lower 
one,  a  little  maid  was  sitting  on  the  grass  of  the  meadow,  while 
two  barefoot  boys,  lying  on  their  stomachs,  were  chatting  with 
her.  “  Camping  Out  in  the  Adirondack  Mountains,”  published 
November  7,  represented  two  men  sitting  on  the  ground,  one 
of  them  smoking  a  pipe  and  looking  dreamily  into  the  fire, 


8o 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


the  other  overhauling  his  stock  of  flies.  A  shelter  built  of 
bark,  a  birch-bark  canoe,  a  landing  net,  a  dog,  and  a  fallen 
tree,  are  items  of  the  scene ;  and  in  the  background  were  a 
lake  and  a  mountain. 

With  the  drawing  of  “The  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill — Watch¬ 
ing  the  Fight  from  Copp’s  Hill,  in  Boston,”  published  June 
26,  1875  (the  scene  being  on  the  roof  of  a  house),  the  long 
series  of  illustrations  in  “  Harper’s  Weekly  ”  comes  to  an  end. 
Extending  through  seventeen  years,  or  from  his  twenty- 
second  to  his  thirty-ninth  year,  with  few  breaks,  this  series 
of  drawings  had  not  only  made  Homer  known  to  many 
thousands  of  his  countrymen,  but  it  had  also  been  in  a  sense 
a  school  of  invaluable  assistance  in  the  development  of  his 
art  and  in  the  disciplining  of  his  talent.  I  have  given  more 
attention  to  the  early  drawings  in  this  series  than  their  in¬ 
trinsic  merits  would  warrant,  perhaps,  partly  because  all 
of  the  formative  stages  of  a  great  artist’s  oeuvre  have  their 
significance  and  interest,  and  partly  because  of  the  extra¬ 
ordinary  interest  that  attaches  to  any  and  all  documents  re¬ 
lating  to  the  Civil  War.  In  a  more  or  less  indirect  way, 
moreover,  the  “  Harper’s  Weekly  ”  drawings  give  us  the 
clue  to  whac  the  artist  was  doing,  what  he  was  thinking 
about,  what  plans  and  purposes  he  was  cherishing,  and  in 
what  places  he  was  working,  during  these  seventeen  years 
of  his  early  life,  before  painting  had  absorbed  all  his  ener¬ 
gies,  and  before  he  had  turned  to  marine  painting  as  his 
special  vocation. 

The  success  of  a  self-made  man  depends  upon  his  inborn 
natural  gifts,  and  upon  the  degree  of  his  will  to  make  the 
best  of  himself.  The  “Harper’s  Weekly”  drawings  offer 
valid  evidence  of  Homer’s  indomitable  determination  to 
teach  himself  how  to  draw.  He  attacked  any  and  every  kind 


A  HAPPY  FAMILY  IN  VIRGINIA 
From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Colonel  Frank 
J.  Hecker,  Detroit 


LIFE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 


81 


of  subject,  as  we  have  seen,  shirking  nothing,  evading  no 
difficulties,  using  his  own  faculties  of  perception,  solving  his 
own  problems,  ever  learning,  even  from  his  own  defeats. 
In  a  literal  sense  he  was  his  own  master  and  his  own  se¬ 
verest  critic.  Nothing  daunted  him.  Mr.  Coffin  1  has  writ¬ 
ten  :  — 

“  Sometimes  it  is  asked, ( What  might  not  Winslow  Homer 
have  done  if  he  had  had  a  thorough  art  education  at  the 
beginning  of  his  career  ?  ’  I  fancy  that  those  who  ask  this 
question  do  not  know  what  a  great  school  Nature  is  when 
the  pupil  is  a  persistent  searcher  for  truth  and  has  the  strength 
of  purpose  that  has  enabled  Mr.  Homer  to  find  adequate 
forms  of  expression  in  his  own  way.” 

At  the  National  Academy  Exhibition  of  1875,  Homer 
exhibited  four  paintings:  “Landscape,”  “Milking  Time,” 
“  Course  of  True  Love,”  and  “  Uncle  Ned  at  Home.”  The 
Centennial  Exhibition  of  1876  at  Philadelphia,  a  landmark 
in  the  history  of  American  art,  contained  the  following  list 
of  Homer’s  works :  “  Snap  the  Whip  ”  (belonging  to  the 
Sherwood  collection)  and  “  The  American  Type,”  in  oils ; 
“The  Trysting  Place,”  “In  the  Garden,”  “Flowers  for  the 
Teacher,”  and  “  The  Busy  Bee,”  in  watercolors.  In  the  offi¬ 
cial  report  of  the  art  display  at  the  Centennial  Exhibition, 
written  by  Professor  John  F.  Weir,  he  speaks  thus  of  the  two 
oil  paintings  mentioned  :  — 

“  Winslow  Homer  was  represented  by  two  pictures,  ‘  Snap 
the  Whip  ’  and  ‘  The  American  Type,’  the  latter  a  character¬ 
istic  example  of  this  artist’s  pronounced  individuality.  The 
expression  of  the  figures  is  intense,  full  of  meaning,  and  the 
tenacity  of  his  grasp  upon  the  essential  points  of  character 

1  “A  Painter  of  the  Sea,”  by  William  A.  Coffin:  Century  Magazine,  Septem¬ 
ber,  1899. 


82 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


and  natural  fact  is  very  decided.  No  recent  work  of  this 
author  has  equalled  the  remarkable  excellence  of  his  cele¬ 
brated  ‘  Prisoners  from  the  Front,’  an  incident  of  the  late 
war,  which  is  a  unique  work  in  American  art ;  but  all  his 
pictures  have  the  merit  of  a  genuine  motive  and  aim.  ...” 

Among  the  pictures  which  Homer  painted  in  1876  was  an 
Adirondacks  subject,  “The  Two  Guides.”  Of  this  picture 
Samuel  Swift  wrote  as  follows  in  the  “  New  York  Mail  and 
Express,”  March  19,  1898:  “‘The  Two  Guides’  shows  an 
old  man  and  a  younger  one  standing  on  the  slope  of  a 
mountain  side.  The  veteran  seems  to  be  pointing  out  to  his 
companion  certain  landmarks  in  the  vast  wilderness.  They 
are  typical  men  of  the  North  Woods,  these  two.  One  wears 
a  red  shirt  that  has  an  insistence  of  color  rarely  attained  in 
these  later  years  of  more  subdued  garments,  and  the  other 
carries  an  axe.  Their  expression  and  bearing,  however,  be¬ 
speak  their  characteristics  better  than  the  mere  labels  of 
shirt  and  axe.  The  great  stretch  of  mountain  and  valley 
that  lies  before  the  two  woodsmen  is  silent  and  lonely  and 
grand.  The  artist  evidently  felt  the  bigness  of  the  place.” 

The  picture  was  bought  by  Mr.  Thomas  B.  Clarke,  and 
was  sold  at  the  sale  of  his  collection  in  1899  for  eight  hun¬ 
dred  and  seventy-five  dollars.  It  became  the  property  of  Mr. 
C.  J.  Blair  of  Chicago,  who  lent  it  to  the  loan  exhibition  held 
at  the  Carnegie  Institute,  Pittsburgh,  in  1908.  Somewhat  more 
elaborate  and  rhetorical,  yet  interesting  enough  to  quote,  is 
the  descriptive  paragraph  concerning  “The  Two  Guides” 
which  was  published  in  the  Clarke  catalogue  of  1899. 

“  ‘The  Two  Guides.’  The  pioneer  of  the  past  is  schooling 
his  young  successor,  to  whom  he  will  soon  abdicate  his  place, 
in  some  of  the  secrets  of  his  craft.  The  old  man,  still  stalwart 
and  lusty  for  all  the  frost  that  whitens  his  beard,  and  the  power- 


LIFE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 


83 


ful  young  woodsman,  are  crossing  a  mountain  ridge.  The 
ground  is  wet  and  dark  with  dews  and  midnight  showers.  Out 
of  the  depths  behind  them  mists  rise  from  the  streams  and 
springs  below,  and  floating  flecks  of  cloud  blow  along  the 
flanks  of  the  mountains.  The  guides  have  halted  at  the  sum¬ 
mit  of  the  ridge,  and  the  older  man  points  forward,  at  some 
landmark  beyond.  Two  grand  and  rugged  types  amid  a 
grand  and  rugged  nature,  they  seem  instinct  with,  and  elo¬ 
quent  of,  the  spirit  of  a  scene  and  life  which  is  yielding 
steadily  to  time,  and  of  which  this  picture  will,  in  the  future, 
be  a  historical  reminder  and  landmark.” 

Mr.  R.  M.  Shurtleff,  referring  to  “The  Two  Guides,”  tells 
us  that  the  principal  figure  depicts  “  Old  Mountain  Philips,” 
a  character  since  made  famous  by  Charles  Dudley  Warner, 
and  the  other  figure  is  that  of  a  young  man  noted  in  the 
Adirondacks  for  his  size  and  his  red  shirt.  “  He  still  lives 
here,”  says  Mr.  Shurtleff,  writing  from  Keene  Valley,  “  and 
is  still  wearing,  if  not  the  same  shirt,  one  precisely  like  it.” 

It  was  while  Homer  was  occupying  his  studio  in  the  old 
studio  building  in  West  Tenth  Street  that  he  became  ac¬ 
quainted  with  John  La  Farge,  who  had  a  studio  in  the  same 
building.  In  his  letter  to  Mr.  Gustav  Kobbe,1  La  Farge  re¬ 
lates  the  following  incident  of  those  days  :  — 

“  I  met  him  [Homer]  on  the  stairs  as  I  was  going  up,  and 
I  knew  by  his  gesture  that  he  was  coming  to  me.  We  went 
up  to  his  room  without  a  word,  and  he  pointed  to  a  picture 
he  had  just  painted.  It  was  that  of  a  girl  who  had  hurt  her 
hand,  and  the  expression  of  the  face  was  what  in  my  New¬ 
port  language  I  know  as  ‘  pitying  herself.’  This  was  as  deli¬ 
cate  an  expression  as  it  is  possible  to  conceive.  The  painter 
of  the  surf  and  the  fisherman  and  the  sailor  and  the  hunter 
1  Published  in  the  New  York  Herald,  December  4,  1910. 


84 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


and  every  active  and  fierce  edge  of  the  sea  was  here  touch¬ 
ing  one  of  the  most  impossible  things  to  render.  He  said 
nothing  ;  he  pointed  ;  I  understood.  He  wished  to  show  me 
that  he,  too,  could  paint  otherwise,  and  we  went  downstairs 
together  without  a  word.” 

Mr.  La  Farge  was,  however,  in  error  when  he  stated  that 
the  education  of  Winslow  Homer  was  “  developed  from  the 
studies  of  especially  the  French  masters  of  whom  there  were 
only  a  very  few  examples  in  the  country  as  far  as  painting 
went.”  There  is  no  evidence  to  support  this  assertion,  and 
there  is  ample  internal  evidence  in  his  pictures  to  show  that 
this  alleged  source  of  inspiration  did  not  exist  for  him.  If  it 
is  true  that  Homer  copied  some  lithographs  by  French  art¬ 
ists  of  the  so-called  Barbizon  school,  as  has  been  stated  on 
the  authority  of  Mr.  La  Farge,  there  is  no  evidence  either  of 
the  fact  itself  or  of  any  influence  from  the  works  in  ques¬ 
tion  in  his  own  practice.  This  mistake  is  of  a  piece  with  the 
false  statement  that  “  the  year  in  the  Paris  schools  greatly 
improved  his  technique.”  He  did  no  work  in  France,  and 
entered  no  schools  in  Paris.  If  he  took  any  interest  in  French 
art,  old  or  modern,  he  never  made  it  known,  orally  or  other¬ 
wise.  Indeed,  I  am  forced  to  conclude  that  Mr.  La  Farge 
knew  Homer  only  superficially ;  he  confesses  as  much  when 
he  says :  “  Quite  late  this  man  went  to  Europe  and  studied 
there,”  and  “  he  seems  to  have  dealt  little  with  the  French 
artists,  nor  do  I  know  exactly  the  degree  of  appreciation 
which  met  him  from  Americans  ;  nor  have  I  ever  heard  what 
he  thought  or  said  of  the  great  masters’  works.”  It  is  very 
strange  that  La  Farge  should  have  been  ignorant  of  the  de¬ 
gree  of  appreciation  which  met  Homer  from  Americans,  for 
this  was  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  at  the  time  his 
words  were  written. 


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CHAPTER  VI 


AMONG  THE  NEGROES 
1876-1880.  JE tat.  40-44 

“  The  Visit  from  the  Old  Mistress  ”  —  “Sunday  Morning  in  Virginia  ” 
—  “The  Carnival”  —  An  Episode  in  Petersburg  —  The  Model  who  Ran 
Away  —  The  Houghton  Farm  Watercolors  —  The  “  Shepherdess  of  Hough¬ 
ton  Farm”  —  The  “  Camp  Fire  ”  —  Gloucester  Again —  Homer’s  Mas¬ 
tery  in  Composition. 

SEVERAL  of  Homer’s  most  successful  and  popular 
paintings  of  negro  life  in  Old  Virginia  were  painted 
in  the  late  seventies.  “  The  Visit  from  the  Old  Mis¬ 
tress,”  which  has  been  catalogued  as  “The  Visit  to  the 
Mistress”  and  “The  Visit  of  the  Mistress,”  was  painted  in 
1876.  “ Sunday  Morning  in  Virginia”  and  “The  Carnival” 
were  painted  in  1877.  While  with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
in  Virginia  in  1862,  Homer’s  attention  had  been  strongly 
attracted  to  the  negroes,  and  in  his  “  Bright  Side”  (1865),  he 
had  made  his  first  essay  in  utilizing  the  African  type  as  a  mo¬ 
tive  for  a  picture.  Conceiving  a  desire  to  return  to  this  class 
of  subjects,  he  went  to  Petersburg,  Virginia,  in  1876,  and 
there  made  a  series  of  careful  studies  from  life.  The  princi¬ 
pal  results  of  this  journey,  which  had  like  to  have  tragic 
results  for  the  artist,  were  the  three  very  sympathetic  and 
interesting  genre  paintings  which  have  been  mentioned. 
While  he  was  at  work  in  Petersburg,  it  became  known  to  a 
group  of  young  fire-eaters  there  that  he  was  consorting 
with  the  blacks,  and  they  resolved  to  drive  him  out  of  town 
as  a  “  d — d  nigger-painter.”  Word  had  come  to  him  that 


86 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


the  place  was  to  be  made  too  hot  for  him,  but  he  paid  no 
attention  to  the  warning.  One  day  he  was  sitting  on  the 
porch  of  the  hotel  where  he  was  staying,  when  a  “  bad 
man”  rode  up  to  the  gate,  dismounted,  tied  his  horse,  and 
started  to  come  up  the  walk,  with  a  most  threatening  aspect. 
Homer,  relating  the  incident,  said  :  — 

“  I  looked  him  in  the  eyes,  as  Mother  used  to  tell  us  to 
look  at  a  wild  cow.” 

The  artist  was  sitting  with  his  hands  in  his  pockets.  When 
half-way  to  the  porch,  the  “  bad  man  ”  hesitated,  halted,  and, 
turning  on  his  heel,  strode  back  to  his  horse,  mounted,  and 
rode  away.  He  had  no  sooner  disappeared  than  a  gentle¬ 
man  from  Texas,  who  had  been  sitting  on  the  porch  near 
Homer,  crawled  out  from  under  an  adjacent  bench. 

“What  did  you  get  down  there  for?”  asked  Homer. 

“  Well,”  said  the  Texan,  “  it  was  n’t  my  fight,  and  I  thought 
there  was  going  to  be  some  shooting.” 

“  Why  did  he  go  away?”  asked  Homer. 

“Well,  I  ’ll  tell  you.  He  thought  you  had  a  Derringer  in 
each  hand  and  were  going  to  get  the  drop  on  him.” 

He  went  on  to  explain  that  sometimes  men  shot  from  their 
pockets.  Homer  was  not  molested.  He  went  on,  finished 
what  he  had  begun,  and  returned  North. 

In  “  The  Visit  from  the  Old  Mistress  ”  there  is  an  extra¬ 
ordinary  presentation  of  femOe  negro  character.  The  three 
former  slaves  are  observed  and  described  most  vividly  and 
keenly.  In  their  solemnity  of  demeanor,  the  humility  of  their 
expression,  and  the  evident  awe  which  the  presence  of  the 
old  mistress  inspires,  there  is  a  blending  of  pathos  and 
humor,  which  belongs  to  the  situation,  and  is  all  the  better 
for  not  having  been  injected  into  it.  The  colored  baby  in  the 
arms  of  one  of  the  women  is  an  interesting  type,  and  one 


AMONG  THE  NEGROES 


87 


wonders  why  the  grande  dame  is  not  human  enough  to  take 
notice  of  it.  The  place  is  the  cabin  of  the  negro  women,  and 
not,  as  the  altered  title  would  imply,  the  kitchen  of  the 
“  great  house.”  A  large  old-fashioned  open  fireplace  is  seen 
at  the  left.  The  position  and  expression  of  the  “mammy” 
sitting  on  a  stool  near  this  fireplace  are  admirably  caught. 
This  picture  was  bought  by  Mr.  Thomas  B.  Clarke,  and  at 
the  sale  of  his  collection  in  New  York,  in  1899,  it  was  sold 
for  three  hundred  and  twenty  dollars  to  Mr.  M.  H.  Lehman 
of  New  York.  Afterwards  it  passed  into  the  possession  of 
Mr.  William  T.  Evans,  who  presented  it  to  the  National 
Gallery  of  Art,  Washington,  D.  C.  It  is  catalogued  as  “  The 
Visit  of  the  Mistress  ”  in  Mr.  Rathbun’s  catalogue,1  but  the 
original  title,  as  given  in  the  catalogue  of  the  National 
Academy  of  Design  for  1880,  explains  the  situation  more 
clearly. 

In  “The  Carnival”  some  negro  women  are  helping  to 
dress  a  colored  man  in  a  fancy  costume,  in  order  that  he 
may  take  part  in  the  festivities  of  the  carnival.  His  coat,  like 
that  of  Joseph,  is  of  many  colors.  It  is  undoubtedly  of  home 
make,  and  blazes  with  the  reds  and  yellows  so  dear  to  the 
hearts  of  the  Africans.  A  group  of  little  negroes  stand  by, 
watching  the  preparations,  with  awe  and  envy  in  their  faces. 
An  old  crone,  with  a  pipe  in  her  mouth,  is  sewing  the  stuff 
together.  At  the  left  of  the  composition  there  is  a  gate,  and 
at  the  right  is  a  house  with  tall  chimneys.  Sunlight  falls  on 
the  group  of  figures,  producing  strong  lights  and  shadows. 
This  work  is  notable  for  its  fine  color  as  well  as  its  capital 
delineation  of  character.  It  was  bought  by  Mr.  Clarke,  and 
when  his  pictures  were  sold  in  1899  it  was  acquired  by  Mr. 

1  “  The  National  Gallery  of  Art,  Department  of  Fine  Arts  of  the  National 
Museum,”  by  Richard  Rathbun.  Washington,  1909. 


88  WINSLOW  HOMER 

N.  C.  Matthews  of  Baltimore  for  two  hundred  and  twenty 
dollars. 

“Sunday  Morning  in  Virginia”  represents  a  group  of 
four  negro  children,  sitting  on  a  bench  and  stools  in  the 
chimney  corner,  painfully  spelling  out  the  words  in  a  Bible 
which  they  hold  on  their  knees.  Beside  them  sits  an  old 
“  mammy,”  leaning  on  her  staff,  and  listening  to  the  reading. 
The  rich  and  sober  scale  of  color  in  this  work,  with  its  deep 
browns,  blues,  and  reds,  admirably  related,  was  the  subject 
of  much  favorable  comment.  This  picture,  eighteen  inches 
high  by  twenty-four  inches  wide,  was  bought  by  Mr.  Wil¬ 
liam  T.  Evans,  and  it  was  sold  at  the  Evans  sale  in  New 
York,  in  the  winter  of  1900,  for  four  hundred  dollars,  the 
buyer  being  Mr.  J.  C.  Nicoll,  the  artist. 

While  engaged  in  painting  his  negro  subjects,  Homer 
met  with  some  amusing  characters  among  his  models,  and 
had  some  diverting  experiences.  He  needed  an  elderly 
woman  model  to  sit  for  him,  in  order  to  complete  one  of  his 
groups,  and,  while  walking  along  West  Street,  in  New  York, 
with  this  idea  in  his  mind,  he  ran  across  a  type  of  “colored 
person  ”  who  had  just  arrived  from  the  South  and  who  in 
age,  avoirdupois,  and  complexion,  was  precisely  what  he 
was  looking  for.  Her  costume  also,  by  the  way,  was  in 
keeping  with  all  the  resf  He  spoke  to  her,  told  her  who 
and  what  he  was,  explained  what  he  wanted,  gave  the 
address,  and  found  her  entirely  willing  to  pose  for  him  on 
the  morrow.  At  the  appointed  hour  she  came  to  the  studio  in 
the  old  University  Building,  and  although  looking  somewhat 
overawed  by  the  sight  of  the  easel,  canvas,  model-stand, 
palette,  brushes,  lay-figure,  screen,  and  other  studio  proper¬ 
ties,  she  took  her  pose,  as  instructed,  and  the  work  was  about 
to  begin ;  when,  turning  his  back  for  a  moment  or  two,  or 


FISHERWOMEN,  TYNEMOUTH 
From  the  drawing  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  William 
Howe  Downes.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Lawrence, 
Boston 


WATCHING  THE  TEMPEST 
From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Burton 
Mansfield,  New  Haven,  Connecticut 


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ttQizoS. 


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V,wH:)3is»oO  •:- v/i,  .WaSfrwnlli . 

- 


AMONG  THE  NEGROES 


89 


stepping  behind  a  screen  to  get  something,  Homer,  as  soon 
as  he  looked  again,  discovered  to  his  amazement  that 
the  bird  had  flown !  Before  he  could  reach  the  top  of  the 
steep  and  step-ladder-like  flight  of  stairs,  she  was  half  tum¬ 
bling  down  the  lower  steps,  falling  over  her  own  skirt  in  her 
panic ;  and  when  he  looked  out  of  the  window  the  next 
minute,  the  old  woman  was  making  record  time  across 
Washington  Square,  as  if  the  Evil  One  himself  were  at  her 
very  heels.  As  Homer  expressed  it,  sh  “  was  only  hitting 
the  high  places,”  so  swift  was  her  flight.  Some  racial  super¬ 
stition,  perhaps,  had  overcome  her  mind  at  the  critical  mo¬ 
ment,  and  her  fear  of  being  bewitched  may  have  culmi¬ 
nated  as  she  watched  the  artist’s  mysterious  preparations  to 
paint  her  generous  figure. 

Another  negro  picture  which  was  the  outcome  of  the 
journey  to  Virginia  in  1876  was  the  “Cotton  Pickers,”  repre¬ 
senting  two  stalwart  negro  women  in  a  cotton  field.  This 
canvas,  about  thirty  by  forty  inches,  in  a  scale  of  browns 
and  silvery  grays,  was  exhibited  some  time  in  the  seventies  at 
the  Century  Club,  of  which,  by  the  way,  Homer  was  a  mem¬ 
ber.  An  English  gentleman  saw  it  there,  bought  it,  and  took 
it  to  England ;  and  Mr.  F.  Hopkinson  Smith,  who  has  sent  me 
this  information,  together  with  a  rough  sketch  of  the  compo¬ 
sition,  thinks  that  the  picture  is  practically  unknown  in 
America. 

At  the  National  Academy  exhibition  of  1877,  “Answering 
the  Horn  ”  and  a  landscape  were  exhibited.  The  price  placed 
upon  the  former  was  seven  hundred  and  fifty  dollars.  The 
list  of  watercolors  shown  at  the  American  Society  of  Paint¬ 
ers  in  Watercolors  exhibition  in  that  year  included  five 
titles  :  “  Book,”  “  Blackboard,”  “  Rattlesnake,”  “  Lemon,” 
and  “Backgammon.”  In  the  National  Academy  of  1878 


90 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


were  “  The  Watermelon  Boys  ”  (or,  “  Eating  Watermelons”), 
and  “  In  the  Fields,”  which  were  engraved  on  wood  for  the 
“  Art  Journal,”  London,  August,  1878  ;  and  there  were  also 
in  the  same  exhibition  “The  Two  Guides,”  “Morning,” 
“Shall  I  Tell  Your  Fortune?”  and  “A  Fresh  Morning.” 

Two  oil  paintings  which  were  originally  entitled  “  A  Fair 
Wind  ”  and  “  Over  the  Hills,”  belonging  to  this  period,  were 
bought  by  Mr.  Charles  Stewart  Smith  of  New  York,  and  are 
pleasantly  and  appreciatively  described  by  Mr.  Strachan  in 
his  “Art  Treasures  of  America,”1  under  altered  titles.  In  the 
Smith  Collection,  according  to  Mr.  Strachan,  the  best  exam¬ 
ple  of  American  art  was  Homer’s  “  Breezing  up”  (“A  Fair 
Wind”),  a  boating  scene  of  admirable  quality.  “  Of  all  the 
frank  and  direct  nature  studies  of  Winslow  Homer,  the  sketch 
of  boys  in  a  boat  had  been  settled  upon  by  the  artists  as  the 
author’s  greatest  hit  since  the  ‘  Confederate  Prisoners.’  — 
The  type  of  the  skipper’s  young  American  son,  gazing  off 
to  the  illimitable  horizon  of  that  picture”  was  “accepted  by 
the  discerning  as  one  of  the  neatest  symbols  yet  struck  off  of 
our  country’s  quiet  valor,  hearty  cheer,  and  sublime  ignorance 
of  bad  luck.”  Of  the  other  picture  in  the  Smith  collection,  which 
he  names  “Rab  and  the  Girls,”  Mr.  Strachan  writes:  “How 
native  and  racy  it  is:  the  two  fresh  girls,  themselves  far 
enough  from  life’s  autumn,  who  roam  the  wild,  lone  hills 
bearing  home  over  the  downs  the  first  blood  drawn  by  aggres¬ 
sive  winter,  the  first  scarlet  branch  of  that  most  American  tree, 
the  maple,  the  first  triumph  of  the  coming  cold  over  the  snappy 
vigor  of  Yankee  summer;  around  them  gambols  their  attend¬ 
ant  Rab,  sufficient  and  trusted  escort  in  a  land  where  hand¬ 
some  girls  are  safe  in  an  atmosphere  of  honest  chivalry ;  the 

1  “The  Art  Treasures  of  America,”  edited  by  Edward  Strachan.  Philadel¬ 
phia:  George  Barrie,  1879. 


AMONG  THE  NEGROES 


9i 


picture  seems  to  include  the  most  delicate  and  pensive  aroma 
of  Coleridge’s  ‘  November,’  while  at  the  same  time  it  speaks 
the  American  accent,  with  incorrigible  bravery  of  hopeful 
maidenhood,  of  cherry-cheeked  leafage,  of  bounding  animal 
life,  of  broad  moorland  freedom.” 

At  the  Paris  universal  exposition  of  1878,  Homer’s  contri¬ 
butions  were  more  numerous,  more  important,  and  much 
more  noticed  than  had  been  his  envois  in  1867.  He  exhibited 
there  “The  Bright  Side,”  “The  Visit  from  the  Old  Mistress,” 
“Sunday  Morning  in  Virginia,”  “A  Country  School-Room,” 
and  “  Snap  the  Whip.”  The  two  last-named  canvases  were 
from  the  collection  of  John  H.  Sherwood.  The  picture  here 
mentioned  as  “A  Country  School-Room”  is  identical  with 
“A  New  England  Country  School,”  dated  1873,  which  has 
been  described. 

The  artist  spent  a  part  of  the  summer  of  1878  at  Houghton 
Farm,  Mountain ville,  New  York,  a  few  miles  from  Cornwall. 
There  he  painted  (among  other  things)  the  two  excellent  little 
watercolors  which  were  lent  to  the  New  York  memorial  ex¬ 
hibition  of  1911  by  Mrs.  Valentine  Lawson,  “Hillside”  and 
“  Shepherdess.”  In  the  foreground  of  “  Hillside”  a  young  girl 
is  seated,  with  her  figure  in  profile,  looking  to  the  right.  Her 
hands  are  clasped  back  of  her  head,  and  her  brown  hair  hangs 
in  a  braid  down  her  back  ;  she  wears  a  brownish  dress.  Im¬ 
mediately  back  of  her  is  a  green  hillside,  and  on  its  crest,  at 
the  left,  are  trees  and  red  buildings.  Other  trees  are  on  the 
ridge  of  the  hill,  which  slopes  down  at  the  right.  There  is  a 
blue  distance  and  a  light  cloudy  sky.  In  the  foreground  of  the 
“Shepherdess,”  on  a  grassy  knoll,  in  shadow,  a  young  girl 
wearing  a  red  dress  and  a  sunbonnet  lies  at  full  length,  with 
her  head  propped  on  her  right  arm ;  near  her  at  the  left  are 
two  sheep.  Beyond,  at  the  extreme  left,  a  large  tree  throws 


92 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


its  shadow  across  the  field  ;  a  stone  wall  back  of  the  tree  fol¬ 
lows  the  rise  of  a  hill  towards  a  clump  of  trees  at  its  top. 
Sheep  are  grazingon  the  hillside,  which  is  in  bright  sunlight. 
There  are  distant  blue  hills  at  the  horizon,  and  the  sky  is 
light  blue  with  thin  white  clouds. 

These  two  watercolors,  with  twenty-two  others,  all,  or 
nearly  all  of  which  were  painted  at  Houghton  Farm,  were 
exhibited  in  1879  in  the  exhibition  of  the  American  Water- 
color  Society.  The  titles  then  were  “  Watching  Sheep  ”  and 
“  On  the  Hill.”  Another  of  the  Houghton  Farm  subjects, 
“  On  the  Fence,”  is  in  my  possession  ;  it  is  dated  1878,  was 
in  the  watercolor  exhibition  of  1879,  and  reappeared  in  the 
Boston  memorial  exhibition  of  1911.  It  shows  a  demure  and 
wistful  little  maid  of  about  twelve  years,  painted  from  the 
same  model  who  is  seen  in  “  Hillside,”  seated  on  a  stone 
wall,  against  a  background  of  white  weeds  and  green  shrub¬ 
bery.  Mr.  Henry  Sayles  of  Boston  also  owns  a  watercolor  of 
the  same  date,  with  a  single  figure,  and  a  garden  with  flow¬ 
ers  in  the  background.  The  rest  of  the  Houghton  Farm  wa¬ 
tercolor  series  of  1878  will  be  found  listed  in  the  Appendix. 
They  were  all  shown  in  the  watercolor  exhibition  of  the  fol¬ 
lowing  year. 

The  three  oil  paintings  sent  to  the  thirty-fourth  annual  ex¬ 
hibition  of  the  National  Academy  of  Design  in  the  spring  of 
1879  were  :  “  Upland  Cotton,”  a  scene  on  a  southern  planta¬ 
tion  ;  “Sundown,”  a  girl  on  the  seashore;  and  “The  Shep¬ 
herdess  of  Houghton  Farm,”  an  American  idyll.  In  all  prob¬ 
ability  “  the  Shepherdess  of  Houghton  Farm  ”  may  have 
been  the  “  half-grown,  long-legged  girl  with  a  crook  and 
knots  of  ribbons  on  her  ill-fitting  dress,  standing  out  in  the 
sunlight  among  the  mullein  stalks,  a  New  England  concep¬ 
tion  of  a  Boucher  shepherdess,”  which  is  recalled  by  Mr. 


PERILS  OF  THE  SEA 

From  the  etching  by  Winslow  Homer,  after  his  water- 
color  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Alexander  C.  Humphreys, 
M.E.,  Sc.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  the  Stevens  Institute 
of  Technology,  Castle  Point,  Hoboken,  New  Jersey. 
Copyright  by  C.  Klackner,  New  York 


. 

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AMONG  THE  NEGROES 


93 


Isham.1  “Any  one  else,”  he  adds,  “would  have  rendered 
her  with  some  recollection  of  the  grace  of  the  prototype  if 
only  by  way  of  caricature ;  but  Homer  in  a  few  firm  strokes 
draws  her  exactly  as  she  was,  with  no  more  suggestion  of 
the  court  of  Louis  XV  than  if  she  had  been  a  lumberman, 
and  yet  the  child  with  the  funny  attempt  at  finery  finishes  by 
being  more  charming  than  any  attempt  to  resuscitate  the 
eighteenth  century.” 

In  the  picture  called  “  Upland  Cotton  ”  one  of  the  critics 
of  1879  found  a  suggestion  of  Japanese  influence.  He  ex¬ 
pressed  the  view  that  this  picture  was  “a  superb  piece  of 
decoration  with  its  deep,  queer  colors  like  the  Japanese,  dull 
greens,  dim  reds,  and  strange  neutral  blues  and  pinks.”  The 
same  writer  thought  that  the  artistic  subtlety  of  Japanese 
art  had  been  precisely  assimilated  by  Homer,  and  that  this 
picture  was  “  original  and  important  as  an  example  of  new 
thought.” 

“Mr.  Homer  can  see  and  lay  hold  of  the  essentials,  and 
he  paints  his  own  thoughts — not  other  people’s,”  said  the 
“Art  Journal,”  London,  1878.  “It  is  not  strange,  therefore, 
that  almost  from  the  outset  of  his  career  as  a  painter,  his 
works  have  compelled  the  attention  of  the  public.  They  re¬ 
veal  on  the  part  of  the  artist  an  ability  to  grasp  dominant 
characteristics  and  to  reproduce  specific  expressions  of  scenes 
and  sitters ;  and  for  this  reason  it  is  that  no  two  of  Mr. 
Homer’s  pictures  look  alike.  His  negro  studies,  brought 
from  Virginia,  are  in  several  respects  —  in  their  total  freedom 
from  conventionalism  and  mannerism,  in  their  strong  look 
of  life,  and  in  their  sensitive  feeling  for  character  —  the  most 
successful  things  of  the  kind  that  America  has  yet  produced.” 

1  The  History  of  American  Painting,  by  Samuel  Isham.  New  York:  The 
Macmillan  Company,  1905. 


94 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


Concerning  the  three  paintings  shown  at  the  National 
Academy  of  1879,  “  Upland  Cotton,”  “  Sundown,”  and  “  The 
Shepherdess  of  Houghton  Farm,”  the  Editor’s  Table  of 
“Appleton’s  Journal  ”  expressed  the  following  judgment  and 
ventured  the  following  prediction  :  — 

“  In  three  pictures  this  year  there  are  more  reach  and  full¬ 
ness  of  purpose  than  in  his  recent  works,  and  they  indicate 
unmistakably,  we  think,  that  when  conditions  all  unite  favor¬ 
ably  Mr.  Homer  will  produce  a  truly  great  American  paint¬ 
ing.  The  elements  are  all  within  him;  they  are  simply  to  be 
adequately  mastered  and  grouped.” 

The  prophecies  of  art  critics  are  seldom  so  marvelously 
and  so  promptly  vindicated  as  in  this  case.  It  is  not  too  late 
to  pay  our  compliments  to  this  clear-sighted  critic  of  1879. 

In  1880  the  artist  returned  to  Cape  Ann,  painting  at 
Gloucester  and  Annisquam.  He  was  chiefly  engaged  in  mak¬ 
ing  small  watercolors,  and  how  profitably  he  employed  his 
time  was  evident  the  following  winter,  when,  at  the  fourteenth 
annual  exhibition  of  the  American  Watercolor  Society,  he 
exhibited  no  less  than  twenty-three  works,  most  of  them 
Gloucester  subjects.  Among  these  were  :  “  Gloucester,  Mas¬ 
sachusetts,”  “  Eastern  Point  Light,”  “  Coasters  at  Anchor,” 
“  Gloucester  Boys,”  “  Bad  Weather,”  “Schooners  at  Anchor,” 
“The  Yacht  Hope,”  “  Fishing  Boats  at  Anchor,”  and  “Sun¬ 
set.”  An  indoor  figure  piece  entitled  “Winding  the  Clock” 
was  also  shown  at  this  exhibition.  It  was  lent  by  General 
F.  W.  Palfrey,  and  a  sketch  of  it  in  the  catalogue,  drawn  by 
F.  S.  Church,  shows  a  girl  standing  on  a  stool  in  front  of  a  tall 
hall  clock,  apparently  blowing  the  dust  out  of  the  key.  .Sev¬ 
eral  of  the  Gloucester  watercolor  series  of  this  year,  owned 
in  Boston,  were  shown  at  the  Boston  memorial  exhibition  of 
1911.  These  include  the  “  Children  Wading  at  Gloucester,” 


AMONG  THE  NEGROES 


95 


belonging  to  the  Edward  Hooper  estate  ;  the  “  Children  and 
Sail-Boat,”  belonging  to  Mrs.  Greely  S.  Curtis ;  “  Sailing 
Dories,”  belonging  to  the  Edward  Hooper  estate ;  and,  I 
think,  “  The  Green  Dory,”  belonging  to  Dr.  Arthur  T.  Cabot. 

At  the  fifty-fifth  exhibition  of  the  National  Academy  of 
Design,  in  1880,  the  oil  paintings  shown  were  the  “  Camp 
Fire,”  the  “Visit  from  the  Old  Mistress,”  “Sunday  Morn¬ 
ing,”  and  “Summer.” 

The  “Camp  Fire”  is  a  nocturnal  scene,  representing  a 
man  lying  on  a  bed  of  pine  needles  in  a  half-open  tepee  or 
wigwam  built  of  saplings  and  walled  with  bark.  Another 
man  is  sitting  on  the  ground  outside,  with  his  back  against 
the  hut.  His  face,  in  profile,  is  lit  by  the  glow  of  the  fire  in 
the  foreground,  which  sends  forth  bright  red  sparks.  In  the 
background  is  a  thick  wood.  The  darkness  is  broken  by  the 
firelight  in  a  way  that  emphasizes  the  solitude  of  the  sur¬ 
rounding  forest.  Tongues  of  flame  flash  and  writhe,  and  the 
sparks  leap  upward  in  quick,  sinuous  curves  that  carry  the 
eye  aloft  to  follow  them.  This  picture  was  bought  by  Mr. 
Thomas  B.  Clarke,  and  it  was  sold  to  Mr.  Alexander  Harri¬ 
son  of  New  York  in  1899  for  seven  hundred  dollars.  It  was 
exhibited  at  the  World’s  Fair,  Chicago,  1893  ;  and  has  been 
exhibited  three  times  in  New  York, —  in  1880,  1910,  and 
191 1.  It  is  twenty-four  and  one-quarter  inches  high  by  thirty- 
eight  inches  wide.  At  present  it  belongs  to  Mr.  H.  K.  Pom- 
roy,  and  it  is  esteemed  a  sterling  example  of  the  artist’s  ori¬ 
ginality  by  all  competent  judges.  Mr.  R.  M.  Shurtleff,  the 
landscape  painter,  informs  us  that  this  picture  was  made  in 
Keene  Valley,  Adirondacks,  and  he  adds  that  it  is  so  real 
that  “a  woodsman  could  tell  what  kind  of  logs  were  burning 
by  the  sparks  that  rise  in  long  curved  lines.”  Finally,  I  quote 
from  the  Clarke  catalogue  of  1899  the  following  excellent 


96 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


description,  which  brings  the  scene  vividly  to  the  imagina¬ 
tion : — 

“  ‘  Camp  Fire.’  Deep  in  the  wilderness  the  fisherman  has 
made  his  camp,  near  a  convenient  trout  stream.  Beneath  a 
storm-uprooted  cedar,  whose  sturdy  branches  support  it 
from  falling  prone  upon  the  ground,  he  has  built  his  hut  of 
saplings,  with  open  front,  walled  with  bark  stripped  from  the 
trees.  Under  this  shelter  his  guide  lies,  sleeping  soundly, 
after  a  weary  day,  on  a  bed  of  aromatic  pine  needles  cut 
green  from  their  branches.  The  sportsman,  relieving  his  ser¬ 
vitor  from  the  watch,  sits  with  his  back  against  the  impro¬ 
vised  cabin.  The  gloom  and  loneliness  of  the  place  and  hour 
have  set  him  thinking,  and  the  face  the  camp  fire  lights  is 
serious  and  pensive.  The  fire  blazes  in  front  of  the  hut,  send¬ 
ing  up  a  stream  of  sparks  like  fiery  serpents,  and  rolling 
from  its  fresh  logs  the  smoke  that  protects  the  camp  from 
insect  pests.  All  around  is  the  mysterious  obscurity  of  the 
primeval  forest,  that  obscurity  and  mystery  which  provide 
the  spice  of  the  true  sportsman’s  life.” 

Coincident  with  the  beginning  of  Homer’s  series  of  sea 
pieces  and  his  abandonment  of  work  for  the  illustrated  press, 
was  a  marked  development  of  his  faculty  for  making  a  strik¬ 
ing  and  original  pictorial  design  or  pattern.  From  1880 
onward  we  shall  find  this  faculty  constantly  working  out 
remarkable  results  in  all  his  pictures.  It  was  not,  however, 
such  a  sudden  accomplishment  as  it  might  seem  to  the  cas¬ 
ual  observer,  for  if  we  look  back  through  the  pages  of  “  Har¬ 
per’s  Weekly  ”  in  the  early  seventies  we  cannot  fail  to  note 
here  and  there  those  apparently  fortuitous  felicities  in  the 
disposition  of  the  light  and  dark  masses  which  contribute  so 
tellingly  to  the  impressiveness  of  a  picture.  This  is  what  a 
discerning  critic  has  called  the  mysterious  power  of  unerring 


MENDING  NETS;  OR,  FAR  FROM  BILLINGSGATE 
From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Charles  W. 
Gould,  New  York 


I 

.  IT  fAxii'VS  a\L'\§  woHasWch  am  ro  'wtarotaw  asU  -,. 
l  ussvl  ,jj\isoO 


. 

:uy  -or:  i\g-  out 


AMONG  THE  NEGROES 


97 


choice.  “  The  construction,  the  very  shape  of  these  pages  of 
nature  remain  in  the  mind  as  he  presents  them,”  writes  Mr. 
Fowler,1  —  “the  spots,  the  masses,  the  relation  they  bear  to 
one  another,  stay  in  the  memory,  while  the  transcript  of  some 
lesser  man,  making  slight  mental  appeal,  soon  fades  from 
one’s  remembrance.  This  is  a  suggestive  fact  —  it  is  not 
through  technical  address  that  such  a  result  is  achieved  — 
it  must  be  something  other.  In  fact,  treating  the  subjects 
Homer  does,  one  would  not  care  for  too  glib  and  facile  hand¬ 
ling  ;  and,  on  consideration,  you  feel  that  the  touch  is  the 
natural  and  consequent  outcome  of  the  theme.  It  is  largely 
the  design  which  gives  them  their  potency  in  memory  — 
they  have  their  stamp,  and  this  is  indeed  their  cachet.  .  .  . 
Nature,  broad,  spacious,  elemental,  seems  to  have  sunk  into 
his  mind,  fixed  there  in  some  shape  or  pattern,  strong  spots  of 
sky  or  water,  almost  savage  at  times  in  their  coloring.  Nothing 
for  whim  ;  no  straining  for  originality.  His  vision  is  as  clear 
as  a  window  pane  through  which  one  might  look  out  upon 
the  scene ;  but  the  selection  is  that  of  an  artist  who  seizes 
the  most  salient  and  typical  point  of  view.  There  is  no  soft¬ 
ening  of  effect  nor  prettifying  of  facts  —  great  nature  suffices, 
and  his  works  possess  the  true  beauty  of  essential  fidelity. 
Design  is  always  there,  for  it  is  the  mysterious  power  of  un¬ 
erring  choice.  This  it  is  which  places  Homer  above  the  plane 
of  a  competent  painter  and  proclaims  him  an  artist  of  the 
first  rank.” 

Homer’s  services  were  in  demand  as  an  illustrator  of 
books ;  and  in  1880  there  were  two  of  his  illustrations,  en¬ 
graved  on  wood,  in  a  publication  entitled  “  Songs  from  the 
Published  Writings  of  Alfred  Tennyson  set  to  music  by 

1  An  Exponent  of  Design  in  Painting,  by  Frank  Fowler,  in  Scribner’s 
Magazine,  May,  1903. 


g8 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


Various  Composers,”  edited  by  W.  G.  Cusins,  and  published 
by  Harper  &  Brothers,  New  York.  His  subjects  were  “The 
Miller’s  Daughter”  and  “Tears,  Idle  Tears.”  The  former  is 
a  half-length  figure  of  a  girl,  with  a  roguish  expression  in 
her  face.  In  the  illustration  to  “  Tears,  Idle  Tears,”  a  slight 
concession  to  the  sentimentality  of  the  theme  is  evident  in 
the  half-length  figure  of  a  maiden  with  downcast  eyes.  In 
the  edition  of  Tennyson’s  poems,  published  by  James  R.  Os¬ 
good  &  Company,  Boston,  1872,  Homer’s  drawing  of  “The 
Charge  of  the  Light  Brigade  ”  appeared.  He  also  contrib¬ 
uted  at  least  one  illustration  to  an  edition  of  the  poems  of 
William  Cullen  Bryant,  the  subject  being  “The  Fountain.” 
In  this  drawing  there  are  two  figures  of  girls  by  the  bank  of 
a  stream.  One,  standing  erect,  carries  a  pail  in  her  hand  ; 
the  other,  on  her  knees,  at  the  water’s  edge,  is  about  to  dip 
up  a  pailful  of  water.  He  also  made  illustrations  to  stories 
printed  in  the  magazines  of  the  day,  and  I  have  before  me 
a  wood  engraving  of  one  of  his  drawings,  which  depicts  a 
group  of  a  half-dozen  young  women  in  a  billiard  room,  one 
of  them  being  about  to  attempt  a  shot,  which  will  infallibly 
prove  a  miscue,  if  I  may  judge  from  the  way  in  which  she 
holds  the  cue:  this  is  entitled  “Jessie  Remained  Alone  at 
the  Table,”  the  legend  probably  being  taken  from  the  text 
of  the  tale.  There  remains  to  be  noticed  a  series  of  outline 
illustrations  to  James  Russell  Lowell’s  dialect  poem,  “The 
Courtin’,”  published  by  James  R.  Osgood  &  Company,  Bos¬ 
ton,  1874.  The  seven  drawings  are  in  silhouette,  reproduced 
by  the  heliotype  process.  From  the  moment  when  “Zekle 
crep’  up  quite  unbeknown  ”  and  “  peeked  in  thru’  the  win¬ 
der,”  this  series  takes  us  rapidly  to  the  not  unexpected  de¬ 
nouement  of  this  affair  of  the  heart,  “  in  meetin’  come  nex’ 
Sunday.” 


CHAPTER  VII 


TYNEMOUTH— THE  ENGLISH  SERIES 
1881-1882.  .Etat.  45-46 

The  Dwelling  at  Cullercoates  —  “  Watching  the  Tempest  ”  —  “  Perils  of 
the  Sea  ”  —  “A  Voice  from  the  Cliffs  ”  —  “  Inside  the  Bar  ”  —  A  Turn¬ 
ing-Point  in  the  Artist’s  Career — -  Watercolors  Dealing  with  Storms  and 
Shipwrecks. 

IN  1881  a  happy  chance  directed  the  steps  of  the  painter 
to  the  east  coast  of  England,  where  he  worked  with  his 
customary  zeal  for  two  entire  seasons  at  Tynemouth,  in 
Northumberlandshire,  a  well-known  watering-place,  with  a 
fine  beach,  overlooked  by  picturesque  cliffs.  Tynemouth  is 
also  a  seaport  and  fishing-town  with  a  population  of  more 
than  fifty  thousand ;  and  a  better  place  for  Homer’s  purposes 
could  hardly  have  been  found  in  all  England.  In  a  suburb 
called  Cullercoates  he  was  fortunate  enough  to  find  a  dwell¬ 
ing  which  just  suited  him,  a  little  house  surrounded  by  a 
high  wall,  with  one  gate,  to  which  he  had  the  key,  so  that  he 
was  safe  from  intrusion.  The  works  that  he  produced  there 
sounded  a  deeper,  stronger,  more  serious  note  than  any  that 
had  preceded  them.  The  sea,  and  the  lives  of  those  who  go 
down  to  the  sea  in  ships,  became,  from  this  time,  his  one 
great  theme,  and  even  the  earliest  and  least  pretentious  of 
his  marine  motives  had  in  them  the  ring  of  that  inalienable 
veracity,  that  deep-seated  and  heart-felt  enthusiasm,  which 
have  made  of  his  sea  pieces  the  incomparable  masterpieces 
that  they  are.  The  Tynemouth  series  of  watercolors,  bearing 
the  dates  1881  and  1882,  had  to  deal  especially  with  tern- 


IOO 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


pests  and  wrecks  and  the  daring  deeds  of  the  coast-guards, 
and  they  formed  a  worthy  prelude  to  the  long  line  of  ocean 
epics  that  was  to  follow  through  at  least  twenty  years  of 
productive  activity. 

To  the  Tynemouth  series  belong  those  stirring  scenes  of 
storm  and  peril,  “Watching  the  Tempest,’’  “Forebodings” 
(or  “The  Perils  of  the  Sea”),  “The  Life  Brigade,”  and 
“  The  Ship’s  Boat;”  as  well  as  those  noble  compositions, 
“A  Voice  from  the  Cliff,”  “Inside  the  Bar,”  “The  Incoming 
Tide,”  and  “  Tynemouth.” 

In  “Watching  the  Tempest”  the  atmosphere  of  excite¬ 
ment,  dread,  and  suspense,  as  the  life-boatmen  prepare  to 
launch  their  craft  to  go  to  the  aid  of  an  unseen  vessel  in  dis¬ 
tress,  is  conveyed  in  every  touch  of  the  brush.  The  storm  is 
raging  with  fury ;  the  air  is  filled  with  clouds  of  wind-swept 
spray  ;  yet  in  the  midst  of  the  emergency  the  observer  feels 
that  the  group  of  men  who  stand  on  the  beach  ready  to 
put  the  boat  into  the  water  are  cool  and  collected,  prepared 
to  do  their  duty  manfully,  but  taking  it  all  as  a  part  of  the 
day’s  work,  without  any  consciousness  of  heroism.  The 
background  shows  a  bluff,  with  buildings  silhouetted  against 
the  stormy  sky,  and  a  crowd  of  spectators  watching  the 
doings  of  the  coast-guardsmen.  When  the  editor  of  the 
Thomas  B.  Clarke  catalogue  of  1899  wrote  of  this  water- 
color,  “  It  is  a  period  of  wild  excitement  and  expectation, 
when  humanity  feels  with  deep  emotion  the  deadly  tumult 
and  peril  of  the  elements,”  he  was  expressing  precisely  what 
every  sensitive  person  must  feel  in  looking  at  this  wonderful 
little  picture.  Yet  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  work  is 
utterly  free  from  all  traces  of  factitious  appeal ;  it  is  dra¬ 
matic  without  being  in  the  least  theatrical ;  there  is  no  aim 
in  it  but  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth  ; 


SHIPWRECK 

From  the  drawing  in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  Roger  S. 
Warner,  Boston.  ( Inscribed :  “  Wreck  of  the  Iron  Crown, 
Tynemouth,  Oct.  25,  1881.”)  Photograph  by  Chester  A. 
Lawrence 


FISHERWOMAN,  TYNEMOUTH 
From  the  watercolor  belonging  to  the  Edward  W.  Hooper 
estate,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A .  Lawrence 


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TYNEMOUTH  — THE  ENGLISH  SERIES  ioi 


and  when  one  looks  at  a  picture  of  this  kind  the  thought 
is  not  of  the  skill  of  the  painter  nor  of  the  beauty  of  the 
design,  but  of  the  “  deadly  tumult  and  peril  of  the  ele¬ 
ments  ”  and  the  courage  of  the  men  whose  business  it  is  to 
risk  their  lives  in  saving  the  lives  of  others. 

“Watching  the  Tempest,”  which  measures  fourteen  by 
twenty  inches,  was  sold  for  three  hundred  and  seventy  dol¬ 
lars  at  the  sale  of  the  Thomas  B.  Clarke  collection,  in  New 
York,  February,  1899.  The  buyer  was  Mr.  Burton  Mans¬ 
field,  of  New  Haven,  Connecticut.  This,  like  all  of  the  Tyne¬ 
mouth  subjects,  was  a  watercolor. 

“The  Perils  of  the  Sea”  appears  to  have  been  inspired 
by  the  same  storm  as  that  so  stirringly  depicted  in  the 
foregoing  composition.  “  The  entire  community  of  a  coast 
settlement  has  turned  out  to  watch  a  wreck  off  shore,”  says 
the  descriptive  catalogue  of  the  Clarke  collection.  “  On  a 
pier  in  the  foreground  two  women  stand  in  attitudes  expres¬ 
sive  of  intense  and  anxious  attention.  Below  the  pier,  on  the 
beach,  many  figures  crowd  with  all  eyes  bent  upon  the  rag¬ 
ing  of  the  wintry  surf.  At  the  left  a  part  of  a  summer  cot¬ 
tage  is  seen.”  1  Although  there  is  the  same  atmosphere  of 
suspense  and  agitation  in  this  work  as  in  “Watching  the 
Tempest,”  the  composition  is  not  so  good.  “  The  Perils  of 
the  Sea”  was  also  in  the  Clarke  sale,  and  brought  two  hun¬ 
dred  and  ten  dollars.  The  buyer  was  Dr.  A.  C.  Humphrey, 
of  the  Lotos  Club,  New  York.  In  the  fall  of  1891,  when  the 
Clarke  collection,  including  twelve  of  Homer’s  works,  was  ex¬ 
hibited  at  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  Phila¬ 
delphia,  a  variation  of  this  watercolor,  catalogued  as  “Fore¬ 
bodings,”  was  described  as  follows  :  — 

1  The  building  is  not  a  summer  cottage,  but  an  observatory  for  the  use 
of  the  coast-guard. 


102 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


“  It  is  wild  and  squally  weather  on  the  sea.  The  wind 
whirls  the  cloud  racks  in  the  sky,  and  a  white  surf  rages 
along  the  shore.  In  the  foreground  two  young  mothers, 
each  carrying  her  babe,  study  with  boding  expectancy  the 
angry  deep  on  which  their  husbands’  boats  are  being  tossed. 
Signed  at  the  left,  and  dated  1881.  Watercolor.” 

“Forebodings”  seems  to  have  been  virtually  the  same 
design  as  “The  Perils  of  the  Sea,”  with  the  exception  of  the 
babes  in  the  former. 

“  A  Voice  from  the  Cliffs”  is  one  of  the  most  important  of 
the  Tynemouth  series  of  watercolors.  Three  English  fisher- 
girls  are  grouped  on  the  beach,  their  forms  being  outlined 
against  the  gray  cliffs  behind  them.  A  striking  feature  of 
the  arrangement  of  this  compact  group  of  figures  is  the 
repetition  of  lines  in  the  arms  of  the  girls  as  they  hold  their 
baskets.  This  gives  a  swing  of  movement  to  the  group 
which  is  highly  effective  and  rhythmical,  without  monotony. 
The  heads  are  the  prettiest  female  heads  painted  by  Homer 
up  to  this  time,  though  they  are  probably  all  painted  from  the 
same  model,  which  is  a  detail  of  no  great  importance.  The 
drawing  has  an  unusually  potent  element  of  charm,  and  the 
first  and  last  impression  is  of  the  extraordinary  beauty  of 
the  composition.  This,  with  three  other  watercolors,  “  Inside 
the  Bar,”  “The  Incoming  Tide,”1  and  “Tynemouth,”  was 
exhibited  at  the  sixteenth  annual  exhibition  of  the  American 
Watercolor  Society,  New  York,  in  1883. 

“  Inside  the  Bar  ”  has  for  its  chief  figure  a  sturdy,  bare¬ 
headed  fisher-woman  standing  on  the  beach,  holding  an 
empty  basket  on  her  left  arm,  with  her  right  arm  akimbo, 

1  Owned  by  Mr.  Charles  S.  Homer.  A  caricature  of  this  work  was  exhibited 
in  New  York  under  the  title  “  Hoop-la  !  Dad 's  Gone  !  ”  Winslow  Homer  saw 
it  and  was  much  amused  by  it. 


TYNEMOUTH— THE  ENGLISH  SERIES  103 


her  feet  firmly  planted  rather  wide  apart,  as  she  braces  her¬ 
self  to  stand  against  the  strong  wind,  which  blows  her 
apron  out  like  a  sail.  The  background  is  the  sea,  with  a 
short  stretch  of  still  water,  then  a  sand  bar,  against  which 
the  surf  breaks  in  white  foam,  and  two  boats  are  seen  in  the 
middle  distance  to  right  and  left.  There  is  vigorous  move¬ 
ment  in  the  chief  figure,  which  is  superb  in  the  uninten¬ 
tional  nobility  of  its  pose.  The  line  formed  by  the  apron 
as  it  is  blown  out  by  the  wind  is  a  truly  admirable  touch. 
The  dark  sky,  with  its  masses  of  gray  clouds  and  its  im¬ 
plications  of  wind,  is  vigorously  suggested. 

“The  Incoming  Tide  ”  shows  a  fisherwoman  retreating 
up  the  wet  beach  before  the  swiftly  coming  waves.  She  car¬ 
ries  two  or  three  baskets  slung  over  her  back,  her  arms  are 
akimbo,  her  skirt  kilted  up  to  save  it  from  a  wetting, 
and  her  figure  is  vaguely  reflected  in  the  shallow  pool 
through  which  she  is  stepping.  In  the  distance  is  a  sailboat, 
and  the  sky  is  full  of  dark  gray  clouds. 

“  Tynemouth  ”  is  mainly  remarkable  for  the  play  of  light 
on  the  surface  of  a  troubled  sea.  It  is  surprising  to  see  how 
simple  are  the  means  used  to  give  this  wonderful  effect  of 
reality.  This  was  the  forerunner  of  the  greatest  of  Homer’s 
marine  masterpieces  in  oils,  painted  in  the  eighties  and  nine¬ 
ties.  So  far  as  the  ability  to  counterfeit  nature  is  concerned, 
it  was  already  unsurpassed,  unequaled,  unique. 

“  The  Life  Brigade  ”  is  a  small  watercolor  quite  similar  in 
subject,  design,  and  execution  to  “  Watching  the  Tempest” 
and  “  Forebodings.”  The  rage  of  the  storm,  the  tremendous 
weight  and  force  of  the  surf,  the  flying  clouds  of  spray,  the 
frowning  threat  of  the  dark  skies,  and  the  consciousness  of 
imminent  danger,  fill  this  dramatic  little  aquarelle  with 
power  and  interest. 


104 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


“The  Ship’s  Boat”  is  a  still  more  direct  and  thrilling 
chapter  of  wreck.  The  boat  has  been  capsized,  and  four  sea¬ 
men  are  clinging  to  the  hull,  which  is  lifted  by  a  monstrous 
wave,  and  borne  towards  the  rocks.  “  The  water  is  drawn  and 
colored  with  signal  knowledge  and  power.  Its  liquidity 
and  translucence,  the  countless  accidents  of  its  surface,  the 
rush  and  whirl  of  its  eddies,  and,  above  all,  the  upheaving 
power  of  its  movement,  have  been  seized,  comprehended, 
and  fixed  with  unsurpassed  fidelity  and  breadth.”  1 

During  his  sojourn  at  Tynemouth,  Homer  made  many 
studies  in  black  and  white,  using  a  variety  of  mediums,  such 
as  charcoal,  crayon,  lead  pencil,  chalk,  India  ink,  and  water- 
color  wash,  on  paper  of  various  tints.  Although  these  studies 
were  of  the  nature  of  memoranda,  forming  simply  one  of  the 
stages  of  the  process  of  making  pictures,  some  of  them  were 
carried  to  a  degree  of  completeness  that  gave  the  impression 
of  the  scene  in  a  most  satisfying  manner.  The  use  of  white 
chalk  for  putting  in  the  lights  in  the  charcoal  studies  on 
tinted  paper  was  remarkably  effective.  Many  familiar  figures 
were  to  be  seen  in  this  series  of  studies,  which  appeared  later 
in  finished  watercolors  or  oil  paintings,  such  as  the  women 
knitting  stockings  as  they  pace  the  beach,  the  men  of  the 
life-saving  service  at  their  arduous  work,  the  fishermen,  and 
other  Tynemouth  characters  with  which  the  artist  has  made 
us  acquainted  in  his  English  pictures.  His  knowledge  in  the 
drawing  of  the  human  figure  was  exemplified  in  such  studies 
as  his  “In  the  Twilight,”  “A  Walk  Along  the  Cliff,”  “A 
Little  More  Yarn,”  etc.  ;  and  his  intimate  appreciation  for 
the  sea  in  action  was  very  impressively  manifested  in  such 
things  as  his  “The  Life  Boat,”  “A  Rolling  Sea,”  and  “The 

1  Twelve  Great  Artists,  by  William  Howe  Downes.  Boston:  Little,  Brown 
&  Co.,  1900. 


RETURNING  FISHING  BOATS 
From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Horace  D. 
Chapin,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A .  Lawrence 


STORM  ON  THE  ENGLISH  COAST 
From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  Roger  S. 
Warner,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Lawrence 


p' Aoa  nxix.5i:^TX>iurfa. 

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mwoi'.k  -•  •  t5  .«i)\?.(>S'.  ,m<^&0 


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ly 


# 


TYNEMOUTH  — THE  ENGLISH  SERIES  105 


Wreck  of  the  Iron  Crown  ”  off  Tynemouth.  Some  of  the 
studies  were  very  slight  in  character,  but  they  told  their  sto¬ 
ries  with  all  of  the  vividness  and  point  of  finished  pictures. 
The  studies  of  clouds  were  excellent  in  their  movement  and 
light  and  shade. 

The  entire  Tynemouth  series  of  watercolors  was  precisely 
as  true  to  English  facts,  conditions,  and  character  as  the 
American  pictures  had  been  to  American  facts,  conditions, 
and  character.  This  because  the  artist  had  no  parti pris,  in 
either  case;  he  painted  the  things  he  saw,  and  added  no 
comment.  His  work  continued  to  be,  in  a  certain  sense, 
historical  rather  than  critical.  Homer  was,  all  his  life,  a 
historian,  a  reporter,  but  in  an  uncommonly  impartial  and 
detached  manner.  His  natural  and  unstudied  adherence  to 
literal  truth,  seemingly  not  a  singular  merit  in  an  artist,  was, 
after  all,  the  great  thing  that  stayed  with  him  throughout 
his  career.  How  rare  it  is  will  be  discovered  by  any  investi¬ 
gator  who  candidly  sets  out  to  seek  for  it  in  the  works  of 
men.  His  power  or  faculty  of  seeing  things  in  their  integ¬ 
rity,  and  of  rendering  that  aspect  of  them  in  pictures,  is  one 
of  the  least  common  of  attainments.  This  is  what  makes  his 
pictures  of  the  Tynemouth  series,  in  common  with  his  Ameri¬ 
can  subjects,  so  different  from  those  of  other  men  ;  this  it 
is  which  gives  them  the  weight  of  authority,  the  power  of 
striking  the  mind,  and  of  remaining  in  the  memory. 

The  English  series  of  watercolors  exhibited  at  the  Ameri¬ 
can  Watercolor  Society’s  exhibition  of  1883,  with  a  subse¬ 
quent  special  exhibition  of  Tynemouth  watercolors  at  Doll  & 
Richards’s  gallery  in  Boston,  1884,  followed  up  by  an  exhi¬ 
bition  of  drawings  and  studies  a  year  later,  caused  many  per¬ 
sons  to  range  themselves  among  the  admirers  of  Homer’s 
works  who  had  been  perhaps  somewhat  lukewarm  in  their 


io6 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


appreciation  before  that  time.  The  Tynemouth  work  might 
therefore  be  called  a  turning-point  in  the  artist’s  career,  so 
far  as  popular  esteem  is  concerned.  There  were  critics  who 
had  found  his  earlier  work  crude,  harsh,  and  awkward,  who 
hastened  to  acclaim  the  English  series  as  masterpieces.  The 
praise  or  blame  of  critics,  however,  never  made  any  differ¬ 
ence  with  Homer,  who  went  serenely  on  his  way,  as  uncon¬ 
cerned  with  such  matters  as  any  man  that  ever  lived. 

At  the  National  Academy  exhibition  of  1883  Homer’s  con¬ 
tribution  was  a  large  oil  painting  entitled  “  The  Coming 
Away  of  the  Gale,”  one  of  the  Tynemouth  subjects.  It  re¬ 
presents  a  group  of  fishermen  and  coastguardsmen  at  a  life¬ 
saving  station,  looking  out  over  the  sea,  and  making  prepa¬ 
rations  to  launch  the  lifeboat.  The  principal  figure  in  the 
foreground  is  a  young  fishwife,  with  her  child  on  her  back, 
who  is  walking  along  the  edge  of  the  bluff,  bracing  herself 
as  she  walks  against  the  gale,  which  blows  her  draperies 
about  her  form  in  picturesque  disorder. 

“  One  Boat  Missing,”  another  Tynemouth  composition, 
depicts  three  fishermen’s  wives  gazing  seaward  from  the 
lofty  cliffs  to  count  the  sails  of  the  home-coming  fishing  fleet. 
Two  of  these  women  are  sitting  on  the  rocks;  the  third 
stands  apart,  holding  a  child  in  her  arms.  The  clouds  over¬ 
head  are  beginning  to  break  away  after  a  storm.  The  flut¬ 
tering  skirts  of  the  women  indicate  the  force  of  the  wind. 
The  design  is  novel  and  fine,  and  the  relation  of  the  figures 
to  the  landscape  is  organic. 

Still  another  Tynemouth  subject,  called  “  The  Break¬ 
water,”  and  bearing  the  date  of  1883  (a  watercolor),  found 
its  way  into  Mr.  Clarke’s  collection.  This  shows  two  young 
fishwives  of  the  Christie  Johnstone  type,  one  of  whom  holds 
a  basket  in  her  hand,  leaning  over  the  stone  wall  of  a  break- 


TYNEMOUTH-THE  ENGLISH  SERIES  107 


water  against  which  the  surf  is  dashing.  Other  figures  are 
seen  towards  the  end  of  the  jetty,  and  at  the  right  rises  the 
cliff.  In  the  distance  some  vessels  are  outlined  against  the 
horizon,  and  boats  are  drawn  up  on  the  far  beach. 

Although  Homer  returned  from  England  in  1882,  we  shall 
see  the  Tynemouth  mise-en-scene  reappearing  from  time  to 
time  in  his  later  works,  with  those  sturdy  and  supple  figures 
of  the  English  fishwives  which  fit  in  so  well  with  the  genius 
of  the  locality.  How  graphically  the  characteristic  features  of 
Tynemouth  are  embodied  in  these  works  is  attested  by  those 
who  are  familiar  with  the  place  itself.  The  beach,  the  cliffs, 
the  town,  the  breakwater,  the  observatory  of  the  coastguards- 
men  —  commanding  a  bird’s-eye  view  of  a  vast  expanse  of 
the  North  Sea — all  appear  and  reappear  in  the  Tynemouth 
series.  The  picturesque  phases  of  the  life  of  the  fishing  com¬ 
munity,  —  the  fishermen,  the  fishwives,  the  coastguardsmen, 
—  are  set  forth  with  the  intimate  actuality  that  we  always 
find  in  Homer’s  work,  so  that  Tynemouth  and  its  people  will 
always  be  associated  with  his  name  and  fame.  His  slightest 
crayon  studies  of  figures  have  the  pictorial  distinction,  the 
fine  sense  of  movement,  and  the  singular  beauty  of  design, 
which  belong  only  to  the  great  masters.  There  is  one  of 
these  in  which  we  see  a  dozen  figures  of  fishwives  with 
creels  full  of  fish  on  their  backs,  climbing  the  sand  bank  from 
the  beach,  and  silhouetted  against  a  squally  sky,  which,  in 
the  nobility  of  its  masses  and  lines  and  movement,  is  of  mon¬ 
umental  and  classical  beauty.  When  the  fishermen  beach 
their  boats  at  Tynemouth,  they  carry  the  anchors  well  in¬ 
shore,  and  leave  the  women  to  discharge  the  cargo,  while 
they,  the  men,  weary  from  their  labors,  go  straight  home  to 
eat  and  sleep.  The  fishwives  go  aboard  and  unload  the 
catch,  carrying  the  fish  to  market,  and  attending  to  the  sell- 


io8 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


ing.  Then  they  return  to  the  boats,  clean  them  up,  and  pro¬ 
vision  them,  even  arranging  the  tackle,  so  that  by  the  time 
the  fishermen  have  had  a  good  night’s  rest  and  plenty  of 
home  food,  their  craft  are  all  ready  for  the  next  trip  to  sea. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


PRODT’S  NECK 
1884.  JEtat.  48 

How  the  Homer  Brothers  discovered  and  developed  a  Summer  Resort  in 
Maine  —  Description  of  the  Place  —  Winslow  Homer’s  Studio  —  His  Garden 
—  His  Way  of  Living  —  Identification  of  his  Masterpieces  with  Prout’s  Neck. 

ON  the  east  side  of  Saco  Bay,  in  the  town  of  Scarboro, 
Maine,  one  hundred  and  nine  miles  from  Boston,  and 
twelve  miles  from  Portland,  Prout’s  Neck  is  a  pro¬ 
montory  which  juts  out  into  the  Atlantic,  the  great  cliffs  fac¬ 
ing  the  south  and  southeast,  and  ranging  from  fifty  to  eighty 
feet  high  above  low-water  mark.  Named  for  the  family  which 
originally  owned  all  of  the  land  on  the  peninsula,  the  locality 
was  but  sparsely  settled  until  after  the  Homer  brothers  came 
to  the  place  in  1875  and  made  it  their  summer  abiding-place. 
In  1875,  when  Arthur  B.  Homer  first  discovered  the  point, 
and  perceived  its  advantages,  there  were  only  three  families 
living  on  Prout’s  Neck,  whereas  in  1910  there  were  sixty- 
seven  houses  and  seven  hotels.  From  1875,  Arthur  B.  Homer 
began  to  go  there  regularly  every  summer,  from  his  home 
in  Galveston,  Texas,  but  he  did  not  build  his  first  cottage 
until  1882.  He  was  followed  by  his  father  and  mother  and 
his  two  brothers,  and  the  Homers  eventually  bought  up  most 
of  the  land  on  the  water  front,  and  set  out  to  develop  the 
place  systematically  as  a  summer  resort.  Winslow  Homer 
had  made  several  visits  to  Prout’s  Neck  in  the  summer  sea¬ 
son  before  he  went  to  England  in  1881,  making  his  stay 


no 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


usually  at  a  boarding-house  or  a  hotel ;  and  although  one 
of  his  purposes  in  going  there  was  to  be  with  his  parents 
and  his  brothers,  he  soon  became  very  much  in  love  with 
the  rugged  and  picturesque  character  of  the  coast,  and,  after 
his  return  from  England,  he  determined  to  make  it  his  home. 
This  decision  was  fortified  by  his  intense  aversion  to  jury 
duty  in  New  York,  which  was  one  of  the  factors  that  influ¬ 
enced  him  in  leaving  the  city.  He  therefore  turned  his  back 
on  the  metropolis  for  good  in  1884,  and  from  that  time  to 
the  end  of  his  life,  in  1910,  he  lived  at  Prout’s  Neck,  “  far  from 
the  madding  crowd’s  ignoble  strife,”  but  not  by  any  means 
in  that  hermit-like  seclusion  which  exaggerated  accounts 
would  have  us  believe. 

Prout’s  Neck  is  a  very  beautiful  place,  with  superb  cliffs ; 
and  the  surf  that  breaks  on  this  bold  headland  in  easterly 
weather  is  something  that  must  be  seen  to  be  realized.  From 
the  top  of  the  cliffs  the  ground  slopes  gently  upwards,  and 
the  summer  cottages  that  now  line  the  shore  from  the  Check- 
ley  House  to  the  bathing  beach  are  set  back  some  fifty  yards 
or  more  from  the  rocks,  having  between  them  and  the  sea  a 
fine  expanse  of  green  sod  and  shrubbery.  There  is  a  surpris¬ 
ing  and  unusual  variety  of  landscape,  since  only  a  few  rods 
inland  one  finds  a  noble  pine  grove,  known  as  the  Sanctu¬ 
ary,  so-called  because  religious  services  were  in  former  years 
held  there  in  the  open  air.  A  strip  of  land  which  includes 
this  extremely  impressive  spot  has  been  given  to  the  Prout’s 
Neck  Improvement  Society  by  Charles  S.  Homer  for  a  pub¬ 
lic  park.  In  the  solemn  aisle  of  this  pine  wood  there  was  a 
dead  tree,  which  it  was  proposed  to  cut  down  and  remove, 
but  Winslow  Homer  advised  his  brother  to  leave  it  alone, 
for  there  was  something  about  it  that  appealed  strongly  to 
him,  perhaps  because  it  emphasized  the  wildness  and  solem- 


THREE  GIRLS 

From  the  drawing  in  the  collection  of  Airs.  Roger  S. 
Warner,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Lawrence 


STORM  AT  SEA 

From  the  drawing  in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  Roger  S. 
Warner,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A .  Lawrence 


X 

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A3S  TA  M570T2 

Si  pi  k  <•>  «^BfeSfesa  tit  sw  gwmo'ib  tlta 

wksy^qX  .k  ^-tosD  j$  .svoUoa.  . 


' 


PROUT’S  NECK 


hi 


nity  of  the  forest,  and  reminded  him  of  the  vast,  hushed 
solitudes  of  the  Canadian  and  Adirondack  woods  that  he 
loved  so  much. 

No  sooner  had  the  artist  resolved  to  make  his  permanent 
abode  at  Prout’s  Neck  than  he  set  about  building  a  snug 
little  cottage  for  himself,  not  far  from  the  summer  homes  of 
his  brothers  and  parents.  The  situation  that  he  chose  was, 
as  might  be  expected  in  the  case  of  a  painter,  singularly 
fine.  It  is  near  what  we  may  call  the  southwest  corner  of 
the  promontory,  with  a  southerly  view  over  the  ocean,  and 
directly  overlooking  some  of  the  most  interesting  rocks  of 
the  entire  Neck.  The  entrance  to  the  house  is  on  the  east 
side,  and  the  whole  of  the  ground  floor,  with  the  exception  of 
the  kitchen  space,  is  given  over  to  the  studio.  A  prominent 
feature  of  the  cottage  is  the  balcony  on  the  ocean  side.  The 
door  is  of  old,  weathered  wood,  natural  color,  and  of  a  very 
beautiful  grain,  with  a  handsome  bronze  knocker,  bearing  in 
low  relief  the  face  of  a  Sibyl,  or,  possibly,  one  of  the  Fates, 
with  flowing  hair  and  features  of  a  classic  symmetry  and 
impassiveness. 

In  the  little  garden  behind  the  cottage,  surrounded  by  a 
high  board  fence,  topped  with  lattice-work,  the  artist  found 
recreation  and  solace  in  raising  all  sorts  of  old-fashioned 
garden  flowers,  such  as  roses,  cinnamon  pinks,  English 
primroses,  marigolds,  pansies,  heliotropes,  petunias,  etc.,  and 
various  vegetables,  including  sweet  corn,  of  which  he  was 
very  fond. 

By  way  of  experiment  he  undertook  also,  one  season,  to 
raise  a  crop  of  tobacco  in  the  garden.  He  procured  some 
seed  from  the  Vuelta  Abajo  district  in  Cuba,  planted  and 
cultivated  it,  and  the  tobacco  plants  grew  nicely.  He  learned 
how  to  sweat  and  dry  the  leaves,  then  he  went  to  a  cigar 


1 1  2 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


factory  in  Portland  and  took  lessons  from  the  workmen  in 
making  cigars.  He  found  this  part  of  the  undertaking  more 
difficult  than  he  had  expected,  and  his  cigars  were,  on  the 
whole,  rather  rude  specimens.  He  did  not  repeat  the  experi¬ 
ment. 

Out  in  front  of  the  cottage,  and  to  the  east  of  it,  the  lawn 
is  accented  by  the  most  admirable  junipers,  which  the  artist 
trained,  after  the  Japanese  fashion,  by  propping  up  the 
branches,  so  that  they  became  in  time  like  wide-spreading 
cedars,  of  magnificent  shape  and  color  and  texture.  Left  to 
themselves,  the  junipers  hug  the  ground,  but  when  cared  for 
in  this  way,  they  become  wonderfully  ornamental  trees.  Nearer 
the  cliffs  and  the  sea,  great  patches  of  wild  huckleberry 
bushes,  which,  when  I  saw  them  in  October,  had  taken  on 
a  royal  crimson  color,  of  almost  dazzling  brilliancy,  formed 
a  nearly  impenetrable  coppice.  Outside  of  the  garden  fence, 
near  its  eastern  end,  stands  an  ancient  sundial,  having  for  its 
pedestal  a  worn  old  mill-stone  from  some  disused  grist-mill, 
with  its  channels  chiseled  in  its  surface.  On  the  other  side 
of  the  house  stands  a  gray  and  weather-worn  old  pair  of 
bitts  from  a  wreck,  of  which  more  anon. 

The  cottage  is  of  wood,  painted  a  pale  green.  It  has  no 
architectural  pretensions.  In  the  studio  a  litter  of  artist’s 
materials,  properties,  costumes,  canvases,  and  the  like,  a 
birch-bark  canoe  from  Canada,  and  an  astonishing  amount 
of  fishing-tackle  and  sporting  appurtenances  were  usually  to 
be  seen.  Of  his  brother  as  a  fisherman,  Charles  S.  Homer 
says ;  “  He  did  not  go  in  for  expensive  or  elaborate  tackle, 
but  he  usually  caught  the  biggest  fish.”  One  might  make  a 
parable  of  this  and  apply  it  to  his  art. 

The  most  absurd  tales  are  told  about  Winslow  Homer’s  her¬ 
mit-like  manner  of  living  at  Prout’s  Neck.  Naturally,  as  one 


PROUT’S  NECK 


ii3 

of  his  purposes  in  settling  there  was  to  obtain  freedom  from 
interruption  during  his  sustained  efforts,  he  could  not  open 
his  doors  to  all  the  casual  callers  who  knocked  for  admission, 
some  of  whom  were  inspired  by  nothing  more  serious  than 
idle  curiosity  to  meet  a  noted  painter  and  see  his  work  in 
his  studio.  It  may  well  be  that  he  sometimes,  through  inad¬ 
vertence,  turned  away  from  his  door  a  visitor  whom  he 
would  really  have  been  glad  to  welcome,  if  he  had  only 
known  what  his  object  was ;  it  is  certain  that  those  who  did 
partake  of  his  hospitality  had  no  cause  to  complain  of  any 
coldness. 

In  the  library  which  Winslow  Homer  collected  there  was 
a  copy  of  Chevreul’s  book  on  color,  which  his  elder  brother 
had  given  him  many  years  ago,  and  this  copy  was  almost 
read  to  pieces,  so  worn  was  it  with  use. 

He  was  accustomed  to  do  a  great  deal  of  looking  before 
he  decided  upon  a  subject  to  paint ;  and  sometimes  he  would 
spend  whole  days  just  looking  at  the  sea,  without  touching 
a  brush.  Although  he  was  one  of  the  first  painters  in  Amer¬ 
ica  to  take  the  trouble  to  carry  a  canvas  several  miles  for 
the  purpose  of  making  a  study  from  nature  in  some  place 
which  had  interested  him,  yet  he  did  not  always  work  di¬ 
rectly  from  nature.  His  extraordinary  memory  for  visual 
impressions  served  him  so  well,  that  at  times  he  could  re¬ 
cord  the  scene  he  wished  to  paint  without  any  preparation 
except  the  slightest  of  notes  and  the  hastiest  memoranda. 
He  was  an  early  riser,  and  frequently  he  would  get  up  at 
half-past  four  o’clock  in  the  summer,  and  go  off  for  long 
walks,  before  anybody  else  was  up,  so  as  to  be  sure  of  being 
alone. 

He  knew  and  loved  every  part  of  the  cliffs  and  rocks.  A 
beautiful  walk  runs  along  the  top  of  the  cliffs  from  his  cot- 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


1 14 

tage  to  the  eastward,  winding  along  in  front  of  the  unen¬ 
closed  grounds  of  the  cottagers,  like  the  cliff  walk  at  New¬ 
port  and  the  similar  walk  at  Nahant.  As  one  strolls  along 
this  path,  never  out  of  sight  and  sound  of  the  sea,  there  are 
numerous  striking  points  of  view,  and  it  is  easy  to  recog¬ 
nize  many  of  the  subjects  of  Homer’s  most  masterly  ma¬ 
rine  pieces.  Here  are  Cannon  Rock,  the  Spouting  Cave, 
Kettle  Cove,  Eastern  Point,  Pulpit  Rock,  and  the  Gilbert 
Rocks.  Now  one  can  scramble  down  over  the  huge  sloping 
ledges  to  a  spot  just  above  high-water  mark,  and,  looking 
back  to  the  westward,  obtain  a  profile  view  of  the  subject 
immortalized  in  the  “  High  Cliff,  Coast  of  Maine.”  Yonder, 
over  miles  of  open  water,  lies  Wood  Island  Light,  and  Bid- 
deford  Pool,  far  in  the  south.  Beyond  Eastern  Point  the 
path  turns  to  the  north,  and  leads  back  to  a  pretty  cove, 
with  a  clean  sand  beach,  the  bathing-beach,  with  its  rows  of 
bath-houses,  a  short  distance  from  which  lie  rocky  islets 
which  are  the  resorts  of  seals.  Just  back  of  the  bathing 
beach  is  a  neat  bath-house  built  by  Winslow  Homer,  which 
he  rented  to  the  Prout’s  Neck  people  until  he  had  got  back 
the  amount  of  money  it  had  cost  him,  when  he  gave  it  to 
the  local  improvement  association. 

Homer  usually  stayed  at  Prout’s  Neck  until  the  first  heavy 
snow-storm  in  December,  then  he  locked  up  his  cottage  for 
the  rest  of  the  winter,  and  started  for  the  south,  —  Florida, 
Nassau,  or  Bermuda ;  but  he  generally  returned  to  Prout’s 
Neck  as  early  as  the  month  of  March.  There  were  some 
years  that  he  remained  at  the  shore  all  winter,  though  he 
made  occasional  trips  to  Boston  and  New  York.  He  em¬ 
ployed  a  man  to  come  to  the  house  in  the  morning  and  at¬ 
tend  to  the  household  chores.  The  rest  of  the  time  he  was 
alone,  except  when  he  had  occasion  to  employ  a  model.  In 


THE  LIFE  LINE 

From  the  etching  by  Winslow  Homer,  after  his  oil  paint¬ 
ing  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  G.  W.  Elkins.  Copyright  by 
C.  Klackner,  New  York 


■ 

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PROUT’S  NECK 


ii5 

the  summer  there  would  usually  be  quite  a  colony  of  the 
Homers  here,  consisting  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arthur  B.  Homer 
and  their  two  sons,  Arthur  P.  and  Charles  L.  Homer,  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Charles  S.  Homer,  and  Winslow’s  father,  who, 
after  the  death  of  his  wife,  in  1884,  lived  with  Winslow  until 
his  own  death  in  1898. 

Arthur  B.  Homer’s  cottage  is  but  a  few  steps  away  from 
Winslow’s  studio.  For  ten  or  eleven  years  Winslow’s  constant 
companion  was  his  dog  Sam,  an  Irish  terrier,  whose  death  was 
such  a  source  of  grief  to  his  master  that  he  would  never  get 
another  dog.  Winslow  Homer  was  very  fond  of  his  two 
nephews,  and  when  they  were  small  boys  he  made  two 
amusing  drawings  of  them,  setting  forth  in  slightly  sarcastic 
fashion  their  respective  characteristics.  “  Little  Arthur  in 
Fear  of  Harming  a  Worm  ”  is  stepping  gingerly  over  an 
angle- worm,  full  of  consideration  lest  he  should  injure  it ; 
while  in  the  drawing  of  “  Little  Charlie’s  Innocent  Amuse¬ 
ments  ”  the  dear  child  is  shown  sitting  on  a  pet  cat  and 
mercilessly  pulling  the  tail  of  the  dog.  He  also  made  a  draw¬ 
ing  in  lead-pencil  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arthur  B.  Homer  dur¬ 
ing  their  honeymoon,  at  Prout’s  Neck:  the  lady  seated  on 
the  ground  near  Kettle  Cove,  while  her  husband,  reclining 
at  her  feet,  looks  up  at  her.  This  is  on  gray  paper,  with  the 
lights  touched  in  with  Chinese  white. 

Besides  the  little  cottage  which  he  occupied  himself, 
Winslow  Homer  built  and  rented  to  summer  sojourners  an¬ 
other  cottage,  near  Kettle  Cove,  a  little  farther  east.  He  said 
that  he  intended  to  live  there  when  he  got  to  be  old.  “  Other 
men  build  houses  to  live  in,”  he  once  remarked ;  “  I  build 
this  one  to  die  in.”  He  never  occupied  it,  but  he  hung  in 
the  ground-floor  rooms  a  few  of  his  early  oil  paintings, 
which  I  saw  when  I  was  at  Prout’s  Neck  in  the  fall  of  1910. 


n6 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


There  were,  among  other  canvases,  all  unframed,  the  study 
of  the  Waverley  Oaks,  painted  when  the  Homers  lived  at 
Belmont ;  the  landscape  with  the  figures  of  two  boys,  which 
perhaps  is  identical  with  the  “  Crossing  the  Pasture  ”  of 
1872  ;  a  picture  of  a  number  of  figures  climbing  Mount 
Washington,  dating  from  1869  or  1870;  a  study  of  the 
kneeling  figure  of  a  young  woman,  one  arm  and  hand  being 
left  unfinished ;  a  study  of  a  girl  in  a  rose-pink  shirt-waist 
leaning  against  the  massive  trunk  of  a  great  beech  tree; 
and  the  full-length  figure  of  a  girl  in  an  apple  orchard. 

In  Arthur  B.  Homer’s  cottage  are  a  certain  number  of 
early  works  in  oil,  watercolor,  and  black-and-white  by  Wins¬ 
low.  In  the  living-room  is  an  autumn  scene  in  the  country, 
where  two  boys  and  a  girl  are  holding  up  a  large  table¬ 
cloth  under  the  branches  of  a  chestnut  tree  while  a  boy  (who 
is  unseen)  shakes  down  the  nuts.  There  is  an  oil  painting 
of  a  great  sand  dune,  with  figures,  painted  in  the  fifties,  at 
Marshfield,  Massachusetts.  The  chief  figure  was  painted 
from  the  artist’s  mother. 

Between  the  periods  of  strenuous  work  on  his  oil  paint¬ 
ings  it  was  Homer’s  custom  to  do  some  manual  labor,  a 
sensible  and  useful  change  of  occupation,  which  rested  him 
and  for  the  time  being  relieved  the  strain  on  his  nerves.  He 
not  only  performed  the  garden  work  of  which  we  have 
spoken ;  he  built  a  stone  wall,  constructed  a  dog  house  for 
Sam  ;  and  once,  when  he  had  made  a  firm  of  picture  dealers 
wait  a  long  time  for  a  reply  to  a  business  letter,  he  finally 
wrote,  apologizing  for  his  tardiness  by  stating  that  he  had 
been  very  busy  building  the  dog-house. 

Homer  lived  well  at  Prout’s  Neck.  He  arranged  to  have 
a  box  or  a  barrel  of  fresh  provisions  sent  down  from  the 
Boston  market  once  or  twice  a  week,  and  he  had  the  best 


PROUT’S  NECK 


117 

that  the  market  afforded.  He  did  most  of  his  own  cooking-, 
and  was  an  adept  at  it ;  but  when  he  got  deeply  absorbed 
in  painting  he  often  forgot  to  eat  at  regular  intervals.  One 
of  his  personal  idiosyncrasies  was  his  custom  of  buying 
things  in  large  quantities.  If  he  found  anything  in  a  store 
that  suited  him  he  would  buy  all  there  was  of  it  in  stock. 
Thus  he  purchased  his  underclothing  by  the  gross, — 
imagine  buying  one  hundred  and  forty-four  pairs  of  socks 
at  once,  for  instance.  When  one  of  his  brothers  gently  re¬ 
monstrated  with  him  for  this  extravagance,  he  retorted : 
“  When  will  you  learn  that  the  time  to  buy  a  thing  is  when 
you  find  what  you  want  ?  If  you  go  back  the  next  year  and 
try  to  get  more,  they  will  try  to  sell  you  something  else.” 

One  summer,  many  days  passed  in  which  Homer  did  no 
painting  at  all.  His  brothers  did  not  quite  understand  this 
unusual  idleness.  Finally  his  elder  brother  ventured  to  remon¬ 
strate.  “What  is  the  use  of  all  this  fooling  around?”  he 
asked.  “  Why  don’t  you  do  something  ?  ”  In  a  good-natured 
tone  he  was  told  to  mind  his  own  business,  but  no  explana¬ 
tion  was  offered.  There  in  the  studio  was  a  large  canvas,  the 
palette  all  set,  and  yet  day  after  day  passed,  and  nothing  was 
done.  Presently  it  became  apparent  that  the  painter  was 
waiting  for  a  certain  effect  of  weather  or  of  light.  The  whole 
summer  passed  away,  and  he  did  not  get  what  he  wanted. 
“  But  he  got  it  the  next  year,”  remarked  his  brother.  He 
knew  precisely  what  he  wanted,  and  could  wait  patiently 
until  the  opportunity  came  to  him. 

Few  American  painters  are  so  closely  identified  with  one 
locality  as  is  Homer  with  Prout’s  Neck.  The  spot  is  and  will 
be  always  associated  with  his  life  and  work  and  personality. 
The  grandeur  of  its  cliffs,  and  the  rush  and  turmoil  of  the  surf 
on  the  ledges  cannot  be  seen  without  the  thought  of  the  mas- 


1 18 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


terpieces  of  art  created  among  these  scenes.  Prout’s  Neck  is 
as  intimately  associated  with  Homer’s  labors  of  a  quarter  of  a 
century  as  Barbizon  is  with  the  works  of  Millet.  Turn  where 
we  may,  there  is  something  to  remind  us  of  Winslow  Homer. 
The  spirit  of  the  place  is  bound  up  in  his  pictures.  In  winter 
storms,  in  moonlit  summer  nights,  in  time  of  peril  and  wreck, 
at  the  still  hours  of  dawn  and  sunset,  all  the  moods  of  nature 
recall  his  creative  activity,  and  the  loving  familiarity  with 
which  each  phase  of  beauty  or  of  grandeur  has  been  inter¬ 
preted. 

As  the  great  waves  break  upon  these  dark  and  streaming 
rocks,  and  toss  high  their  plumes  of  silvery  spray,  we  see 
him  at  work,  and  realize  anew  the  unfaltering  fidelity  and 
noble  simplicity  with  which  he  strove  to  make  himself  the 
true  and  modest  translator  of  nature’s  marvels.  The  breezes 
that  sweep  up  from  the  North  Atlantic  through  the  Maine 
pines  are  not  more  pungent  and  bracing  than  his  pictures. 
Here,  when  the  dull  roar  of  the  northeaster  fills  the  air  with 
its  vibrating  diapason,  and  the  thickening  snow  drives  before 
the  bitter  gale,  the  voices  of  the  storm  must  forevermore 
recall  the  man  who  loved  the  wild  and  wintry  rage  of  the 
elements  as  others  love  soft  sunshine,  summer  calm,  and  fire¬ 
side  comfort.  There  was  something  in  that  solitary  soul 
which  responded  with  passionate  joy  to  the  call  of  the  tem¬ 
pest.  In  the  midst  of  its  boisterous  transports  he  was  at 
home,  and,  like  Byron,  he  could  say :  — 

And  I  have  loved  thee.  Ocean  !  and  my  joy 
Of  youthful  sports  was  on  thy  breast  to  be 
Borne,  like  thy  bubbles,  onward  ;  from  a  boy 
I  wantoned  with  thy  breakers. 

And  trusted  to  thy  billows  far  and  near. 

And  laid  my  hand  upon  thy  mane,  —  as  I  do  here. 


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PROUT’S  NECK  119 

Surely  it  may  be  said  that  he  was  led  to  Prout’s  Neck. 
There  he  was  to  confront,  contemplate,  study,  and  grapple 
with  all  the  earnestness  of  which  he  was  capable  the  supreme 
artistic  problem  of  his  career.  All  that  he  had  done  and  ac¬ 
complished  before,  in  Boston,  New  York,  Tynemouth,  and 
elsewhere,  was  as  a  trifle  in  comparison,  a  preliminary  essay 
of  his  strength,  a  preparatory  course  of  training  for  this  task 
appointed  for  him.  He  had  always  been  sincere,  industrious, 
single-minded,  ardent ;  he  was  now  to  be  called  upon  to  be 
more  so  than  ever.  All  his  knowledge  and  all  his  courage 
were  to  be  demanded  of  him.  The  place,  the  time,  and  the 
man  were  well  met.  The  opportunity  was  large ;  the  call 
urgent  and  unmistakable  ;  and  every  fibre  in  his  nature 
responded. 


CHAPTER  IX 


•‘THE  LIFE  LINE” 

1884.  iEtat.  48 

The  Story-Telling  Picture  —  Sources  of  Prejudice  against  it — Various 
Comments  on  and  Descripdons  of  “The  Life  Line”  —  Exhibitions  in 
Boston  —  An  Anecdote  of  a  Commission  for  a  Picture  which  was  declined. 

WHEN  he  left  New  York  and  established  his  home 
at  Prout’s  Neck,  in  1884,  Homer  took  with  him  a 
number  of  unfinished  oil  paintings  which  he  had 
begun  from  studies  made  at  Tynemouth  and  at  Atlantic 
City,  New  Jersey.  Living  as  he  now  did  in  a  perpetual  tete- 
a-tete  with  the  ocean,  which  beat  upon  the  great  ledges 
almost  at  his  door,  he  signalized  the  beginning  of  his  most 
important  series  of  sea  pieces,  a  series  which  was  to  engross 
him  for  more  than  twenty-five  years,  by  completing  and 
sending  to  the  National  Academy  exhibition  of  1884  his 
celebrated  composition  entitled  “The  Life  Line.” 

The  shipwrecks  which  he  had  witnessed  in  England  led  him 
to  feel  the  wish  to  describe  in  his  pictures  a  not  uncommon 
scene  during  a  storm  off  the  New  Jersey  coast,  the  rescue  of 
seamen  and  passengers  from  a  shipwrecked  vessel  by  the 
use  of  the  breeches  buoy.  He  had  therefore  gone  to  Atlantic 
City  in  1883  and  had  made  friends  of  the  members  of  one  of 
the  life-saving  crews  there,  who  gave  him  every  help  possi¬ 
ble,  illustrating  and  explaining  the  method  of  employing  the 
life  line.  Incidentally,  while  at  Atlantic  City,  he  had  the  good 
fortune  to  see  a  rescue  from  drowning,  which  gave  him  the 


THE  LIFE  LINE 


121 


idea  for  another  picture,  “  Undertow,”  which  he  began  at 
once  upon  his  return  to  his  New  York  studio,  but  which  he 
did  not  get  ready  to  exhibit  until  1887. 

The  picture  of  “The  Life  Line”  is  one  of  the  most 
dramatic  and  striking  of  his  story-telling  pictures,  and  it 
had  an  immediate  and  emphatic  popular  success.  Modern 
art  criticism  views  with  aversion  if  not  with  contempt  the 
story-telling  picture ;  and  almost  all  the  American  painters 
of  Homer’s  time,  with  a  few  notable  exceptions,  such  as 
Eastman  Johnson  and  Thomas  Hovenden,  were  more  or  less 
inoculated  with  Whistler’s  pet  doctrine  of  art  for  art.  Plausible 
studio  theorists  would  tell  you  that  a  “literary”  subject  — 
by  which  they  meant  a  subject  in  which  the  human  interest 
predominated  —  was  inevitably  fatal  to  a  picture.  A  part 
of  this  feeling  arose,  perhaps,  from  a  reaction  against  the 
banality  of  the  British  school  of  genre  painting,  as  exempli¬ 
fied  in  the  episodic  sentimentalities  of  the  Royal  Academy. 
Another  source  of  the  prejudice  was  the  unquestionable  in¬ 
feriority  of  the  work  of  many  of  our  own  men  whose  pictures 
of  familiar  life  were  trivial  in  motive  and  mediocre  in  execu¬ 
tion.  But  the  theorists  forgot  that  their  attitude  on  this  ques¬ 
tion  could  find  no  justification  in  a  broad  view  of  the  history 
of  the  art  of  painting ;  forgot  that  the  greatest  painters  of  all 
periods  were  the  most  human  of  men  in  their  sentiments, 
the  most  vivid  and  eloquent  illustrators  of  life  and  manners, 
equally  great  as  men  and  as  artists.  For  the  artists  who  de¬ 
liberately  turned  their  backs  on  the  life  of  the  day  all  about 
them,  and  sought  to  divorce  their  art  from  the  daily  interests 
of  the  people,  the  error  was  a  serious  one.  Now,  Winslow 
Homer  was  not  a  theorist ;  we  never  hear  of  him  expound¬ 
ing  what  art  is  and  what  it  is  not,  what  it  can  do  and 
what  it  cannot  do.  He  never  had  to  ask  himself  whether 


122 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


he  was  a  realist,  an  impressionist,  a  symbolist,  a  luminarist, 
or  a  pre-Raphaelite.  He  belonged  to  none  of  the  camps.  He 
told  stories  in  his  pictures  because  the  story-telling  instinct 
in  him  irresistibly  impelled  him,  because  it  is  an  instinct  that 
is  universal,  and  responds  to  a  universal  impulse  in  every 
age  and  land.  He  told  them  without  triviality,  because 
triviality  was  alien  to  his  nature.  In  some  of  his  sea  tales  he 
attempted  what  no  painter  before  him  had  ever  dared  to  at¬ 
tempt,  and  he  must  have  been  aware  of  the  extraordinary 
difficulties,  but  he  was  undaunted  by  them. 

It  needs  but  a  glance  at  this  subject,  “The  Life  Line,” 
for  example,  to  show  that  there  were  possibilities  in  it  of 
failure,  of  ineptitude,  of  anti-climax.  It  may  be  assumed  that 
nine  painters  in  ten  would  have  pronounced  the  design  in 
itself  a  pictorial  impossibility.  But  where  there  is  a  will 
there  is  a  way.  Homer  met  such  problems  as  this,  and  by  the 
exercise  of  artistic  tact  and  audacity,  he  turned  difficulties 
into  triumphs.  In  spite  of  all  obstacles,  he  succeeded  in 
developing  here  a  design  which  compels  admiration,  and  em¬ 
bodies  in  a  novel  arrangement  one  of  the  most  thrilling  situ¬ 
ations  of  deadly  peril  and  heroic  rescue  ever  committed 
to  canvas.  I  need  not  say  that  “The  Life  Line”  mani¬ 
fests  a  masterly  grasp  of  reality.  It  is  awe-inspiring  in  its 
delineation  of  the  fearful  forces  of  the  tempestuous  sea.  All 
the  terrors  of  shipwreck  are  brought  home  to  the  mind  by 
the  scene.  The  spectator,  too,  may  be  as  much  thrilled 
by  the  thought  of  the  man’s  ingenuity  who  invented  the 
breeches  buoy,  —  a  device  that  has  saved  so  many  valuable 
lives,  —  as  he  is  by  the  courage  of  the  sailor  hero  whose 
hardihood  and  adresse  is  put  to  the  test  in  this  hour  of  dire 
danger. 

It  is  difficult  to  describe  the  composition  satisfactorily. 


MARKET  SCENE,  NASSAU 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  R.  A.  Thompson 


CUSTOM  HOUSE,  SANTIAGO 
DE  CUBA 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection 
of  Mrs.  Roger  S.  Warner,  Bos¬ 
ton.  Photograph  by  Ches¬ 
ter  A .  Lawrence 


UNDER  A  PALM  TREE 
From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection 
of  Mr.  F.  Rockefeller , 
Cleveland,  Ohio 


■UA8FA V:  .'.-.AT'  1  (sIZAM 
we,-/.  :ivc-i\1  .k  ,-u.i  \o  s'f '  baUoti  •-:>  V 


a3HT  MJACI  A  SI3GMU  OOA1TMA3  ,3&J0H  MOT3UD 

s^oii^site  ssU  m  ^otmUy&f  v.v-,  A 

.A  AM  \o  fejfo  su-4w63%toss  ml  moA 

cj'ii'.O  ,&«^a«siO  -coS. 

-?,j{\j  x$  ‘  .«oi 

iiosm'jjo*i  .  L  iki 


THE  LIFE  LINE 


123 


Several  writers  have  made  the  attempt,  and  I  shall  venture 
to  quote  from  four  of  them.  A  contemporary  description 
from  “The  Studio,”  which  was  copied  in  Dr.  Charles  M. 
Kurtz’s  “Academy  Notes”  for  1884,  runs  as  follows:  — 

“  The  canvas  represents  the  trough  of  a  tremendous  sea. 
At  the  left,  from  a  ship,  indicated  by  a  rent  piece  of  sail,  ex¬ 
tends  the  life  line  across  the  crests,  to  the  shore  on  the 
right.  In  the  centre  of  the  hollowed  trough  is  seen  a  life 
chair  suspended  from  the  line  by  ropes  and  pulleys,  and  in 
this  chair  is  seated  a  seaman  holding  in  his  arms  the  uncon¬ 
scious  form  of  a  woman.  The  wet  garments  cling  about  her 
and  the  lower  portion  of  the  dress  has  been  torn  by  the  vio¬ 
lence  of  the  sea.  The  seaman’s  face  is  not  seen,  for  a  muffler, 
or  tippet,  which  a  gust  of  wind  has  blown  directly  in  front 
of  him.” 

The  description  given  in  the  catalogue  of  the  Thomas  B. 
Clarke  collection,  1899,  is  as  follows  :  — 

“  Stretched  across  the  upper  part  of  the  composition  is 
a  great  cable,  attached  to  which  is  the  boatswain’s  chair, 
wherein  sits  a  sturdy  seaman,  clasping  in  his  strong  arms 
the  fainting  figure  of  a  shipwrecked  woman.  Her  clinging 
garments,  saturated  with  the  salt  water,  outline  her  form, 
except  where  they  are  distended  by  the  force  of  the  gale. 
The  sea  breaks  and  tumbles  about  in  awful  turbulence  be¬ 
neath  the  seaman  and  his  charge  as  they  are  being  drawn 
slowly  but  surely  on  the  life  line  to  the  shore.  ...” 

According  to  Samuel  Swift,  in  the  “  New  York  Mail  and 
Express,”  March  19,  1898,  “The  Life  Line”  is  scarcely  ex¬ 
celled  as  an  expression  of  the  force  and  power  of  the  ocean, 
of  the  irresistible  might  of  its  blows,  and  of  the  comparative 
helplessness  of  human  strength  amid  such  titanic  stresses 
and  strains.  “  It  tells  a  story,  but  this  is  merely  incidental. 


124 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


The  interest  lies  less  in  a  speculation  whether  the  brave  life- 
saver  will  reach  land  in  safety  with  the  half-drowned  woman 
whom  he  holds  fast  to  him,  than  in  a  realization  of  the  un¬ 
governable  sway  of  the  water,  as  illustrated  by  its  effect  on 
the  mortals  who  endeavor  to  elude  its  grasp.”  He  adds  the 
remark  that  “  Mr.  Homer  wisely  hid  the  face  of  the  coast¬ 
guard  with  the  scarf  that  has  blown  across  it,  in  order  to 
help  concentrate  attention  upon  the  real  subject  of  the 
picture.” 

Description  and  criticism  are  blended  in  Mrs.  Van  Rens¬ 
selaer’s  1  remarks  about  “  The  Life  Line  ”  :  — 

“  In  a  yawning  hollow  between  two  watery  mountains 
swings  a  slender  rope,  and,  made  fast  to  it,  a  sturdy  sailor 
bearing  across  his  knees  the  unconscious  figure  of  a  girl.  No 
one  could  have  painted  a  scene  like  this  with  such  convincing 
strength  who  had  not  lived  among  the  breakers  and  the 
tragedies  they  work  ;  but  no  one,  on  the  other  hand,  who 
lacked  that  constructive  imagination  which  the  thorough¬ 
going  realist  professes  to  despise.  The  theme,  in  its  essen¬ 
tials,  was  the  saving  of  a  woman’s  life.  To  express  it  the 
painter  gave  prominence  to  her  blanched  face  and  half-clothed 
form  ;  and  he  clearly  showed,  in  contrast,  the  vigor  of  the 
sinews  which  upheld  her  and  the  tremendous  rage  of  the  sea. 
These  he  had  shown,  and  all  else  he  had  omitted.  There  is 
nothing  unusual  here,  you  may  say  —  any  artist  would  have 
gone  about  his  task  in  just  this  manner.  But  how  many 
would  have  known  what  Homer  knew  —  that  among  the 
things  to  omit  was  the  sailor’s  face?  How  many  would  have 
felt  that  to  paint  it  as  it  must  be  painted,  if  at  all,  would  be 
to  distract  attention  from  the  principal  figure,  to  create  two 

i  Six  Portraits,  by  Mrs.  Schuyler  Van  Rensselaer.  Boston:  Houghton,  Mifflin 
&  Co.,  1894. 


THE  LIFE  LINE  125 

centres  of  interest,  to  weaken,  not  enhance,  the  impressive¬ 
ness  of  the  whole  ?  ” 

It  may  be  thought  that  Mrs.  Van  Rensselaer  lays  more 
emphasis  than  is  necessary  upon  the  covering  up  of  the 
sailor’s  face,  makes  more  of  this  omission  than  the  circum¬ 
stances  warrant.  However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that 
Homer,  in  this  as  in  all  his  narrative  pictures,  appeals  to  the 
imagination  of  the  observer  with  exceptional  potency  by  his 
use  of  the  great  artistic  principle  of  reserve.  He  does  not 
show  us  everything,  but  flatters  us  by  assuming  that  we  can 
exercise  our  imaginations  and  that  we  are  able  to  reason 
from  cause  to  effect.  There  is  seldom  a  ship  to  be  seen  in  his 
shipwreck  pictures,  but  the  tale  is  usually  told  by  suggestion 
and  implication.  It  is  an  effective  method,  as  is  well  known, 
and  it  is  but  one  of  many  evidences  of  the  resourcefulness 
and  sagacity  which  characterize  the  artist’s  designing  and 
constructing  of  his  pictures.  Mr.  Royal  Cortissoz  has  re¬ 
marked  that  it  seems  never  to  have  occurred  to  him  to  tell 
a  story  in  paint  after  the  manner  of  the  artist  to  whom  the 
anecdote  is  everything.  “When  he  attacked  a  theme  he 
gave  it  its  full  value,  but  never  let  it  encroach  upon  the  integ¬ 
rity  of  his  technique.  His  art  was  beautifully  balanced.  You 
admire  it  for  its  own  sake,  yet  this  does  not  keep  you  from 
admiring  its  subject.  Indeed,  the  very  perfection  of  the  equi¬ 
librium  he  established  gives  to  each  phase  of  his  work  the 
fullest  possible  force.  Thus,  while  his  technique  is  of  the 
highest  interest,  nature  speaks  through  his  work  with  a 
peculiar  richness  and  fullness.”  1  Mr.  Cortissoz  applies  to 
Homer  the  words  used  by  Matthew  Arnold  in  speaking  of 
the  “natural  magic”  of  Maurice  Guerin,  his  power  to  so 
interpret  nature  as  to  give  us  “  a  wonderfully  full,  new,  and 
1  New  York  Tribune,  February  19,  1911. 


126 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


intimate  sense”  of  it.  “  He  stands  aside  and  leaves  his  facts 
to  speak  for  themselves.  His  expression  corresponds  with 
the  thing’s  essential  reality.” 

“  The  Life  Line  ”  was  bought  by  the  late  Catherine  Loril- 
lard  Wolfe  for  twenty -five  hundred  dollars.  She  in  turn  sold 
it  to  Mr.  Thomas  B.  Clarke.  At  the  sale  of  the  Clarke  col¬ 
lection  in  1899  it  was  sold  for  forty-five  hundred  dollars,  an 
advance  of  two  thousand  dollars  over  the  price  originally  re¬ 
ceived  for  it  by  the  painter  in  1884.  It  is  now  in  the  collection 
of  Mr.  G.  W.  Elkins  of  Philadelphia. 

At  the  seventeenth  annual  exhibition  of  the  American 
Watercolor  Society,  New  York,  1884,  Homer  exhibited  two 
subjects,  namely,  “The  Ship’s  Boat”  and  “  Scotch  Mist.” 
The  former,  which  was  illustrated  in  the  catalogue,  was  a 
Tynemouth  motive.  It  has  been  described  already.  For  the 
first  time  Homer’s  address  is  given  in  the  catalogue  of  1884 
as  “Scarborough,  Maine.” 

After  settling  at  Prout’s  neck,  Homer  held  a  series  of  exhi¬ 
bitions  of  his  works  in  Boston.  His  watercolors,  drawings, 
studies,  and  oil  paintings  were  shown,  year  after  year,  at  the 
old  gallery  of  Doll  &  Richards,  in  Park  Street,  and  they  met 
with  a  gratifying  market  and  liberal  recognition.  One  of  the 
most  extensive  buyers  of  his  works  was  the  late  Edward 
Hooper,  Treasurer  of  Harvard  College  and  one  of  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts. 
Many  of  his  finest  watercolors  were  included  in  the  Hooper 
collection.  These  were  inherited,  upon  Mr.  Hooper’s  death, 
by  his  daughters,  Mrs.  Horace  D.  Chapin,  Mrs.  Bancel  La 
Farge,  Mrs.  Roger  S.  Warner,  and  Mrs.  John  Briggs  Potter. 
At  that  time  Homer  said  that  Boston  was  the  only  city  in  the 
United  States  that  gave  him  any  practical  encouragement.  It 
is  but  fair  to  state,  however,  that  New  York  was  not  long  in 


THE  GULF  STREAM 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  New  York 


. 


£ 


■ 


MA33T5  -'iJLUO  3HT 

....  Mi  svcA-AiAki  m-y.vsum^  Mi  ?3  MVwwtA 

&-oT  ,A.  A  \o  smmuM.  tt©isio<^niaM. 

•. 


THE  LIFE  LINE 


127 


extending  to  his  work  the  practical  recognition  that  means 
so  much  to  an  artist,  and  the  example  set  by  Mr.  Thomas  B. 
Clarke  was  no  doubt  of  the  utmost  value  in  diiecting  the 
attention  of  other  collectors  throughout  the  country  to  the 
desirability  of  his  pictures. 

Mention  of  the  frequent  exhibitions  in  Boston  reminds  me 
of  an  anecdote.  Mr.  Moody  Merrill,  who  in  the  early  eighties 
was  president  of  an  important  street  railway  company  in  Bos¬ 
ton,  had  a  fine  country  seat  in  New  Hampshire,  of  which  he  was 
fond  and  proud.  On  meeting  Homer  one  day,  he  proposed 
to  him  that  he  should  paint  a  picture  of  the  Merrill  country 
home,  a  sort  of  portrait  of  the  place,  and  he  went  on  to  ex¬ 
plain  in  considerable  detail  what  he  wanted  brought  into  the 
picture  in  the  way  of  details,  and  how  it  should  be  done. 
Homer,  with  that  faintly  quizzical  expression  about  the  eyes 
which  indicated  that  he  perceived  the  humorous  side  of  the 
question,  heard  him  out,  with  patience  and  courtesy.  Then, 
without  either  accepting  or  declining  the  proposal,  and  with¬ 
out  commenting  upon  it,  he  said,  briefly,  “Well,  Mr.  Merrill, 
I  have  usually  as  many  as  two  exhibitions  a  year  in  Boston, 
and  if  you  will  step  into  Doll  &  Richards’s  gallery  some  time, 
and  chance  to  see  anything  of  mine  there  that  you  like,  you 
are  welcome  to  buy  it.” 


CHAPTER  X 


NASSAU  AND  CUBA 
1885-1886.  JEtat.  49-50 

A  Winter  in  the  Bahamas  and  the  South  Coast  of  Cuba  —  The  Color  of 
the  Tropics  — —  “  Searchlight,  Harbor  Entrance,  Santiago  de  Cuba”  —  “The 
Gulf  Stream”  —  Later  Trips  to  Nassau,  Bermuda,  and  Florida. 

AFTER  overseeing  the  installation  of  an  exhibition  of 
his  studies  in  black-and-white  in  Boston,  early  in  the 
winter  of  1885-1886,  Homer  set  sail  for  the  Bahama 
Islands,  and  passed  the  rest  of  the  winter  at  Nassau,  New 
Providence,  the  capital  of  the  archipelago,  subsequently  tak¬ 
ing  passage  thence  to  the  South  Coast  of  Cuba.  To  him, 
whose  eyes  were  so  well  fitted  for  seeing  all  the  glory  of  the 
southern  seas,  this  first  voyage  in  the  tropics  opened  up  a 
new  world  of  color.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  he  re¬ 
vealed  to  the  North  for  the  first  time  what  the  color  of  the 
tropics  really  is  like.  Other  painters  had  visited  Nassau  be¬ 
fore  him,  but  they  could  neither  realize  in  their  fullness  nor 
record  with  adequacy  the  exquisite  colors  of  the  amazing 
harbor  of  Nassau,  with  its  transparent  turquoise  blues  and 
emerald  greens  and  changing  violets.  Tones  are  there  which 
vie  with  the  rainbow,  the  peacock’s  plumage,  the  diamond, 
the  flowers  of  the  field,  and  the  light  of  morning  skies. 
Under  the  keen  stimulus  of  such  color  Homer  produced  in 
Nassau,  with  extreme  rapidity,  a  series  of  watercolors  which 
have  never  been  surpassed  for  sheer  brilliancy.  He  painted 
that  masterpiece  of  radiance  and  luminosity,  the  “  Sponge 


NASSAU  AND  CUBA 


129 


Fisherman,  Nassau,”  and  that  unequaled  revelation  of  Afri¬ 
can  character,  the  “  Negress  with  Basket  of  Fruit,”  both  of 
which  were  bought  by  Mr.  Martin  Brimmer  of  Boston ;  he 
painted  also  the  “  Port  of  Nassau,”  the  “  Market  Boat,” 
“Noon,”  “Fox  Hill,”  the  “Sea  Fans,”  the  “  Banana  Tree,” 
“Song  Birds,  Nassau,”  “  Native  Cabin,”  “  Near  the  Queen’s 
Staircase,”  and  many  another  page  of  gladness.  He  showed 
us  entrancing  glimpses  of  the  flowers  and  trees  and  skies 
and  reefs  of  those  coral  islands  where  lives  the  — 

.  .  .  Magic  charm 
Of  the  Bahaman  sea, 

That  fills  mankind  with  peace  of  mind 
And  soul’s  felicity.1 

It  seemed  too  good  to  be  true.  Indeed,  to  the  eyes  of  those 
persons  who  had  never  looked  upon  the  Bahamas  and  the 
Caribbean  Sea  his  pictures  of  1885-1886  must  have  appeared 
exaggerated  in  color.  But  travelers  who  knew  their  West 
Indies  were  enraptured  by  the  bold,  incisive,  direct,  pene¬ 
trating  veracity  with  which  the  almost  incredible  splendors 
of  those  southern  waters  and  islands  were  rendered. 

It  had  been  said  more  than  once,  by  more  than  one  critic, 
that  Homer  was  no  colorist ;  that,  though  his  color  was  good 
enough,  in  its  way,  it  had  no  sensuous  charm  ;  that,  though 
it  was  strong  and  sure  and  true,  it  was  sometimes  a  little 
harsh.  Now  the  Nassau  and  Cuba  series  of  1885-1886  com¬ 
pletely,  and  once  for  all,  cut  the  ground  from  under  the  feet 
of  these  critics,  and  left  them  with  nothing  to  stand  on. 
Again  the  painter  demonstrated  that  he  was  capable  of  re¬ 
cording  the  most  delicate  nuances  as  well  as  the  most  reso¬ 
nant  tones,  that  he  was  in  a  singular  degree  endowed  with 
the  faculty  of  seeing  justly  and  exactly  the  thing  as  it  exists 
1  Bliss  Carman,  A  Winter  Holiday .  Boston:  Small,  Maynard  &  Co.,  1899. 


130 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


in  nature,  and  of  setting  it  forth  without  extenuation  and 
without  prejudice,  color  and  light  as  well  as  line  and  mass. 
The  Antillean  watercolors  were  steeped  in  tropical  sunlight. 
Fortuny  never  excelled  their  sparkle  and  radiance.  They 
were  glowing  with  the  utmost  exuberance  of  intense  life. 
Nothing  could  have  been  more  radically  different  from  the 
English  series  of  1881  and  1882,  yet  each  was  perfectly  true 
to  local  conditions  of  color,  light,  and  atmosphere. 

Three  of  the  Nassau  watercolors  were  in  the  famous 
Thomas  B.  Clarke  collection.  They  were  “  The  Market 
Scene,”  “Under  a  Palm  Tree,”  and  “  The  Buccaneers.”  In 
the  “  Market  Scene  ”  the  wonderful  harbor  of  Nassau  ap¬ 
pears,  with  two  boats  manned  by  negro  sailors  who  are  bar¬ 
tering  fruit  and  fish.  In  the  centre  is  a  sloop,  with  a  crowd 
of  figures  on  the  deck,  dressed  in  motley  costumes.  A  mem¬ 
ber  of  the  crew  is  offering  a  turtle  for  sale  to  the  occu¬ 
pants  of  the  craft  at  the  left.  “Under  a  Palm  Tree”  is  an 
upright  composition,  with  a  mulatto  girl  clad  in  a  gayly 
colored  dress  and  wearing  a  scarf  about  her  head  and  neck, 
leaning  against  the  tree  trunk ;  tropical  plants  fill  the  back¬ 
ground.  “The  Buccaneers”  represents  a  group  of  freeboot¬ 
ers  in  the  shade  of  some  tall  palms,  watching  eagerly  the 
progress  of  a  distant  sea  fight.  The  ocean  is  of  the  deep, 
unfathomable,  indigo  blue  of  the  tropics  ;  and  against  the 
luminous  sky  the  fronds  of  the  palms  are  a  vivid  green.  This 
is  a  well-imagined  reminiscence  of  the  wicked  old  days  of 
piracy  that  made  the  waters  of  the  Bahamas  notorious  in  the 
time  of  Blackbeard,  whose  headquarters  were  at  Nassau. 

“  Conch  Divers,”  which  was  bought  by  Russell  Sturgis,  is 
an  admirable  design,  which  depicts  a  group  of  three  negroes 
on  the  deck  of  a  sloop,  watching  the  reappearance  of  a  diver 
who  is  just  emerging  from  the  water  alongside,  with  some 


THE  FOG  WARNING 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
^Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston 


. 

■ 

V,  ■. v\  m  -y..''  ■  ’  -.q  Vro  ryA’>  •.  s  vl  - 
.iVtkuwft  V  ••  '^14 


NASSAU  AND  CUBA  131 

shells  in  his  hand.  The  island  of  New  Providence  with  its 
palms  is  to  be  seen  in  the  distance  at  the  right.  “Shark 
Fishing,  Nassau  Bar,”  shows  two  negroes  in  a  small  boat. 
They  have  just  caught  an  immense  shark,  which  is  in  the 
midst  of  his  final  flurry,  astern  of  the  craft.  Among  the  land¬ 
scapes  there  is  one  entitled  “Approaching  Tornado,”  which 
is  remarkable  for  its  portentous  atmosphere.  Thus  the  Nas¬ 
sau  watercolors  gave  a  comprehensive  idea  of  the  life  and 
landscape  aspect  of  the  Bahamas,  a  part  of  the  world  most 
alluring  from  the  point  of  view  of  paintable  material,  which 
had  not  before  been  exploited. 

The  Ward  Line  steamships  which  touch  at  Nassau  on  the 
way  southward  make  their  next  port  at  Guantanamo,  on 
the  south  coast  of  Cuba,  and  thence  they  proceed  westward 
along  the  coast  to  Santiago  de  Cuba.  From  this  ancient 
Spanish  city  Homer  brought  home  with  him  another  rich 
series  of  watercolors,  showing  the  grim,  mediaeval  rock  for¬ 
tress,  known  as  the  Morro,  a  sort  of  Caribbean  Gibraltar, 
which  frowns  over  the  narrow  entrance  to  the  land-locked 
harbor ;  sundry  views  of  this  magnificent  harbor,  with  the 
intensely  picturesque  town  and  its  grandiose  background  of 
far  violet  mountains  forming  a  flat  mass  at  the  horizon ;  a 
number  of  street  scenes,  with  the  old  cathedral,  the  custom¬ 
house,  the  Spanish  Club,  the  cockpit,  and  the  houses  of  San¬ 
tiago,  low,  covered  by  red-tiled  roofs,  tinted  in  pale  washes 
of  rose,  blue,  mauve,  adorned  by  the  intricately  designed 
wrought-iron  balconies  that  one  sees  in  all  Cuban  towns, 
and  blending  an  air  of  dignity  with  a  down-at-the-heels, 
squalid,  and  shiftless  condition ;  the  quaint  volantes,  which 
were  the  Cuban  cabs  of  1886 ;  even  the  frightful  sharks 
which  infest  all  the  neighboring  waters.  The  Americans  who 
looked  with  casual  curiosity  at  these  scenes  were  far  from 


132 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


foreseeing  that  Santiago  de  Cuba  was  to  become  in  twelve 
short  years  from  that  time  the  objective  of  an  American 
army  of  invasion,  and  that,  off  the  tortuous  entrance  to  this 
noble  harbor,  in  sight  of  the  Morro  Castle,  was  to  be  fought 
the  short,  sharp,  and  decisive  naval  combat  which  was  des¬ 
tined  to  free  Cuba  forever  from  the  domination  of  Spain 
and  put  an  end  to  all  Spanish  power  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic. 

The  two  most  important  oil  paintings  produced  by  Homer 
as  the  result  of  his  West  Indian  voyage  were  not  finished 
until  some  years  after  his  return  home,  but  they  were  of 
course  based  upon  careful  studies  made  on  the  spot.  These 
were  the  “Searchlight,  Harbor  Entrance,  Santiago  de  Cuba,” 
and  the  “  Gulf  Stream,”  both  of  which  are  now  in  the  per¬ 
manent  collection  of  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  New 
York.  The  first-named  work,  which  was  first  seen  at  a  loan 
exhibition  of  pictures  held  at  the  Union  League  Club,  New 
York,  after  the  Spanish- American  war  of  1898  had  made  the 
Morro  Castle  famous,  represents  in  the  foreground  the  corner 
of  the  fortress,  with  a  round  tower  like  a  sentry-box  project¬ 
ing  above  the  parapet,  and  an  obsolete  type  of  cannon  ex¬ 
tending  horizontally  across  the  centre  of  the  composition. 
Beyond  these  dark  shapes  is  a  wide  expanse  of  luminous 
pale  blue  sky,  athwart  which  sweeps  the  wedge-shaped  light 
from  a  battery  on  the  farther  side  of  the  channel,  or,  possibly, 
from  a  ship  of  war.  High  at  the  left  the  moon  floats  in  a  ring 
of  curdled  clouds.  The  solitude  and  solemnity  of  the  scene 
impress  the  imagination,  and  the  mysterious  beauty  of  the 
nocturnal  sky  forms  a  piquant  foil  to  the  stern,  warlike  old 
stronghold  in  the  foreground,  with  its  romantic  associations 
of  Cuban  political  prisoners  languishing  in  its  subterranean 
dungeons.  This  picture  is  not  dated,  and  it  was  painted  at 


NASSAU  AND  CUBA 


133 


different  times,  in  the  intervals  of  other  work.  It  was  given 
to  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  by  Mr.  George  A.  Hearn, 
who  paid  seventy-five  hundred  dollars  for  it.  In  a  letter 
dated  December  30,  1901,  addressed  to  Mr.  Thomas  B. 
Clarke,  the  artist  speaks  of  the  picture  as  just  finished,  and 
encloses  a  rough  pen-and-ink  sketch  showing  the  point  of 
view  of  the  picture  and  the  topography  of  the  surrounding 
country.  From  this  sketch  it  appears  that  the  searchlight 
was  on  board  of  one  of  the  picket  vessels  of  the  United 
States  fleet  lying  off  the  mouth  of  the  harbor  in  1898.  Sev¬ 
eral  of  the  ships  are  indicated  on  the  horizon  in  this  sketch, 
but  in  the  painting  they  are  of  course  invisible.  As  the 
painter  was  not  at  Santiago  in  1898,  the  effect  of  the  search¬ 
light  introduced  in  this  composition  must  have  been  studied 
elsewhere  and  adapted  to  the  subject,  which,  in  all  its  other 
features,  was  based  on  sketches  made  in  1886. 

“The  Gulf  Stream”  is  as  frankly  a  story-telling  piece  of 
work  as  “The  Life  Line.”  It  is  the  most  elaborately  literary 
of  the  artist’s  tropical  motives.  In  this  composition,  which, 
by  the  way,  has  too  many  objects  in  it  to  be  as  unified  as 
the  majority  of  its  author’s  canvases,  we  see  a  stalwart  negro 
sailor  afloat  on  a  dismasted  derelict,  at  the  mercy  of  the  ele¬ 
ments,  in  the  deep  blue  Caribbean  waters.  His  drifting  craft 
is  surrounded  by  hideous  and  voracious  sharks,  waiting  im¬ 
patiently  for  their  prey  to  fall  into  their  hungry  maws.  In  the 
far  distance  passes  an  unseeing  or  indifferent  merchant  ship. 
At  some  distance  from  the  derelict  is  a  waterspout.  The 
tragedy  is  enhanced  in  its  horror  by  the  strange  beauty  of  the 
southern  sea.  Here  are  no  heroics,  no  rhetoric,  no  explanatory 
passages,  to  detract  from  the  bald  and  fateful  presentation  of 
cruel  fact.  The  denouement  is  only  too  clearly  inevitable.  It 
is  not  a  pretty  drawing-room  tale,  but  a  grim  and  ghastly 


134 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


one.  Kenyon  Cox  1  remarks  that  the  work  is  not  without  cer¬ 
tain  obvious  faults.  “The  tubby  boat  has  been  objected  to 
by  experts  in  marine  architecture,  and  the  figure  of  the  negro 
is  by  no  means  faultless  in  its  draughtsmanship,  while  there 
is  a  certain  hardness  of  manner  in  the  painting  of  the  whole 
canvas.  But  these  things  scarcely  obscure  the  dramatic  force 
of  the  composition,  which  renders  it  one  of  the  most  power¬ 
ful  pictures  Homer  ever  painted.  Nor  is  it  merely  a  piece  of 
illustration.  Its  admirable  mastery  of  design,  and  the  conse¬ 
quent  perfection  with  which  it  renders  the  helpless  sliding  of 
the  boat  into  the  trough  of  the  sea,  should  be  obvious  in  the 
photograph.  There  is  not  an  inch  of  any  of  the  innumerable 
lines  of  the  magnificent  wave  drawing  that  does  not  play  its 
part  in  a  symphony  of  line.  What  the  reproduction  cannot 
render  is  the  superb  depth  and  quality  of  the  blue  of  the 
water,  of  such  wonderful  passages  of  sheer  painting  as  the 
distance,  with  the  ship  driving  by  under  full  sail,  or  the  dash 
of  spray  from  the  tail  of  the  nearest  shark.” 

“The  Gulf  Stream”  was  not  finished  until  1899,  and  when 
it  was  exhibited  a  few  years  later  (1906)  at  the  National 
Academy  of  Design,  the  entire  jury  recommended  its  pur¬ 
chase  by  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  a  manifestation  of 
the  high  esteem  in  which  the  artist  was  held  by  his  profes¬ 
sional  brethren  and  of  the  occasional  gratifying  unanimity  of 
opinion  held  by  American  painters  regarding  works  of  art. 
When  the  painting  was  brought  before  the  jury,  a  murmur 
of  admiration  was  heard,  and  one  of  the  painters  said : 
“Boys,  that  ought  to  go  to  the  Metropolitan  !  ”  A  letter  ad¬ 
dressed  to  the  director  of  the  Museum  was  at  once  drawn  up 
and  signed  by  all  the  members  of  the  jury,  suggesting  that 

i  Kenyon  Cox,  “Three  Pictuies  by  Winslow  Homer  in  the  Metropolitan 
Museum.”  The  Burlington  Magazine,  London,  November,  1907. 


BANKS  FISHERMEN;  OR,  THE  HERRING  NET 
From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Charles  W. 
Gould ,  New  York 


T3K  DKI333Ii  3HT  ,30  ;M3M33:  !.'I3  c. 

N  m  ."  .  'J.  sw.Un^Vi^  ®*J§{g3 

moi  &M  ,w-o 


NASSAU  AND  CUBA 


135 


the  Museum  should  purchase  the  picture.  This  was  imme¬ 
diately  despatched  to  Sir  Caspar  Purdon  Clarke,  and  the 
following  day  Mr.  Roger  Fry  appeared  at  the  gallery  and 
inspected  the  picture.  Two  days  later  the  Museum  sent  word 
that  it  would  take  the  picture. 

The  “  Evening  Post  ”  critic  called  it  “  that  rare  thing  in 
these  days,  a  great  dramatic  picture,”  and  added  :  “  Partly 
because  the  horror  is  suggested  without  a  trace  of  sentimen¬ 
tality,  and  partly  because  every  object  in  the  picture  receives 
a  sort  of  even,  all-over  emphasis  that  shows  no  favor  to  the 
dramatic  passages,  the  story  never  overweighs  the  artistic 
interest.”  The  “Tribune”  critic  found  in  the  work  dramatic 
power,  a  sense  of  life  vividly  observed,  and,  in  the  ship  on 
the  horizon,  a  suggestion  of  hope  receding  which  put,  in 
Kipling’s  phrase,  “  the  gilded  roof  on  the  horror.”  The  critic 
of  “The  Sun”  discovered  that  the  picture  contained  more 
shudders  than  Gericault’s  “  Raft  of  the  Medusa,”  and  other 
writers  drew  attention  to  certain  similarities  of  the  subject  to 
Turner’s  “  Slave  Ship.”  Mr.  Riter  Fitzgerald,  in  the  Phila¬ 
delphia  “  Item,”  attacked  the  work  savagely,  calling  it  a 
unique  burlesque  on  a  repulsive  subject,  “a  naked  negro 
lying  in  a  boat  while  a  school  of  sharks  were  waltzing  around 
him  in  the  most  ludicrous  manner.”  The  same  writer  thought 
that  the  artist  had  painted  it  with  “a  sense  of  grim  humor,” 
and  that  its  proper  place  was  in  a  zoological  garden.  He 
stated  that  when  the  work  was  first  shown  in  Philadelphia 
it  was  laughed  at.  Still  another  critic  remarked  that  sharks 
“  are  neither  pretty  nor  artistic  looking  creatures,”  but  that 
their  presence  in  this  canvas  gave  it  “a  touch  of  grotesque 
hideousness  that  adds  immeasurably  to  the  sense  of  the  im¬ 
pending  tragedy.” 

On  his  return  from  the  West  Indies  in  the  latter  part  of 


136 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


the  winter  of  1886,  Homer  almost  immediately  prepared  and 
opened  a  small  exhibition  of  his  watercolors  at  the  gallery  of 
Doll  &  Richards,  in  Boston.  He  exhibited  fifteen  subjects 
from  the  Bahamas  and  fourteen  from  Santiago  de  Cuba. 

He  went  to  Nassau  again  several  times,  and,  in  later  years, 
to  Florida  and  to  Bermuda,  during  the  winter.  These  trips 
were  made,  sometimes  alone,  and  sometimes  in  company 
with  his  father  or  his  elder  brother,  and  they  were  not  always 
primarily  for  sketching  purposes,  though  he  almost  always 
did  some  watercolor  work,  notably  in  1898,  1899,  1900,  and 
1903.  Several  journeys  to  Florida  with  his  brother  Charles 
were  fishing  trips,  the  place  selected  for  this  purpose  being 
Enterprise,  on  the  St.  John’s  River,  where  the  bass  fishing  is 
excellent.  Enterprise  is  a  little-known  winter  resort,  in  Vo¬ 
lusia  County,  on  the  Florida  East  Coast  Railway,  at  the  head 
of  navigation  on  the  St.  John’s,  and  adjoining  Lake  Monroe. 

The  brothers  also  made  a  fishing  trip  to  Tampa,  Florida. 
I  have  seen  a  series  of  photographs  taken  by  Winslow 
Homer  on  this  occasion,  and  in  one  of  the  snap-shots  there 
is  a  good-sized  wooden  box  in  the  foreground,  which  was 
used  to  carry  luncheon  in.  It  chanced  to  be  an  old  whiskey 
box,  and  the  name  of  the  distillery  was  stenciled  on  the  side 
of  the  box.  When  Winslow  Ffomer  came  to  develop  the 
print,  and  to  give  his  brother  a  copy  of  it,  he  pointed  out 
the  lettering  on  the  box,  and  said,  with  a  smile,  “This  sort 
of  thing  is  calculated  to  give  people  a  wrong  impression.” 


CHAPTER  XI 


MARINE  PIECES  WITH  FIGURES 
1885-1888.  JElat.  49-52 

“  The  Fog  Warning  ”  —  “  Lost  on  the  Grand  Banks  ”  —  “  Hark  !  the 
Lark” — -“Undertow” — “Eight  Bells” — The  Genesis  of  a  Deep-Sea 
Classic. 

THE  first  few  years  at  Prout’s  Neck  were  prolific  both 
in  oil  paintings  and  watercolors.  “The  Life  Line”  of 
1884  was  the  beginning  of  a  notable  series  of  oil 
paintings  of  marine  subjects  with  figures,  a  series  which 
includes  “The  Fog  Warning”  and  “Banks  Fishermen”  (or 
“The  Herring  Net”),  of  1885,  “Lost  on  the  Grand  Banks,” 
“Undertow,”  and  “  Eight  Bells,”  of  1886.  With  the  collection 
of  watercolors  from  Nassau  and  Cuba  which,  as  has  been 
noticed,  was  held  in  Boston  directly  after  his  return  from  the 
West  Indies  in  the  winter  of  1886,  were  shown  a  couple  of 
oil  paintings  which  were  at  that  time  catalogued  as  “  The 
Herring  Net”  and  “Halibut  Fishing,”  but  which  have  since 
then  become  famous  under  the  altered  titles  of  “  Banks  Fish¬ 
ermen”  and  “The  Fog  Warning.” 

“Banks  Fishermen”  depicts  two  fishermen  in  a  dory  haul¬ 
ing  in  a  net  full  of  the  silvery  and  squirming  little  herring 
which  gave  to  the  work  its  original  name.  One  of  the  men 
is  standing  amidships  and  leaning  over,  emptying  the  her¬ 
ring  from  the  net  into  the  bottom  of  the  boat.  His  mate,  sit¬ 
ting  on  the  gunwale,  at  the  left,  with  his  back  to  the  observer, 
pays  out  the  empty  net.  Back  of  the  two  figures,  at  the 
right,  the  crossed  oar  blades  rest  against  the  bow  of  the  dory. 


138 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


In  the  foreground  the  water  is  greenish,  and  near  the  centre 
is  a  red  buoy.  In  the  hazy  distance  three  sailboats  appear  on 
the  horizon.  The  movement  of  the  dory,  poised  on  the  side 
of  a  wave,  and  careening  away  from  the  observer,  the  action 
of  the  two  figures,  the  flow  of  the  water,  are  admirably  ren¬ 
dered.  The  color  is  strong  and  effective.  When  the  work 
was  shown  in  New  York,  at  the  autumn  Academy  of  1885, 
one  of  the  critics  justly  remarked  that  it  was  the  only  picture 
in  the  exhibition  calculated  to  give  one  a  high  idea  of  Ameri¬ 
can  art.  The  canvas  measures  thirty  inches  high  by  forty- 
eight  and  one-eighth  inches  wide.  It  was  exhibited  at  the 
World’s  Columbian  Exposition  at  Chicago,  1893,  under  the 
title  of  “Herring  Fishing,”  and  received  a  medal  there.  It 
belongs  to  Mr.  Charles  W.  Gould. 

“The  Fog  Warning”  (or  “Halibut  Fishing”)  represents 
a  Banks  fisherman  in  oilskins  and  sou’wester  returning  to 
his  schooner  with  two  or  three  fine  halibut  as  his  prizes 
stowed  in  the  stern  of  his  dory.  The  water  is  dark  and  glassy 
in  the  light  of  late  afternoon,  and  the  sea  is  rough.  Aloft  the 
sky  is  still  bright,  but  near  the  horizon  is  a  distant  bank  of 
fog  of  a  dark  slate  color.  The  sails  of  the  schooner  are  visi¬ 
ble  far  off  at  the  right ;  and  the  fisherman  rests  on  his  oars 
momentarily,  turning  his  head  in  order  to  make  out  where¬ 
away  his  vessel  lies.  The  bow  of  the  dory  lifts,  letting  us 
see  its  whole  shape,  as  the  stern  settles  in  the  trough.  The 
drawing  of  the  wave  forms  is  incisive,  clear,  firm,  expressive, 
and  masterly.  The  buoyancy  of  the  dory,  riding  lightly  on 
the  choppy  seas,  and  the  hard  and  almost  metallic  aspect  of 
the  water  in  the  dull  light,  are  among  the  admirably  studied 
details  of  this  simple  and  noble  work.  Under  the  original 
and  soon  abandoned  title  of  “  Halibut  Fishing,”  which  was 
decidedly  too  prosaic,  there  was  hardly  any  suggestion  of 


HARK!  THE  LARK 

From  the  photogravure ,  copyright  by  Winslow  Homer 
and  published  by  C.  Klackner,  New  York,  after  the  oil 
painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the  Layton  Art 
Gallery,  Milwaukee,  Wisconsin 


. 

. 


5151 A  J  jTHT  !  >151  AH 
oj-qUsv'.'U  y.3  vAi  wo^V 

■■.'  -i\W  ,*v/I  *4isTA  ^mvfo&VA  .0  ^  iuvo 

V*  L  »r '.  •  uA  \o  woi-toa\l.n  i«s>tt©nm<3j  sslV  \a-  §«.V\«Vd^ 
wH-mmA;  I  ,$s$my»SVM.  .'c^UvsO 


mg’  li  "  1;  i-  on 


MARINE  PIECES  WITH  FIGURES  139 


any  danger  to  the  man.  The  revised  title  is  an  unusually 
good  example  of  how  a  title  may  be  made  to  give  just  the 
requisite  direction  to  the  imagination  of  the  observer.  There 
is  surely  a  fog  rising  yonder,  and  just  as  surely  a  fog  may 
spell  danger  to  the  man  so  far  away  from  his  schooner. 

“  Halibut  Fishing  ”  does  not  direct  our  thought  to  that  pos¬ 
sibility  of  danger  ;  “  The  Fog  Warning”  serves  to  make  the 
picture  tell  its  story  better. 

“A  suggestion  of  peril  in  terms  of  studied  restraint  is 
more  in  consonance  with  the  tone  of  that  life  of  exposure 
and  risk,  where  men  face  death  almost  incessantly  for  the 
sake  of  a  few  dollars’  worth  of  fish,  than  would  be  a  too  em¬ 
phatic  insistence  or  a  too  particular  explanation  of  the  sig¬ 
nificance  of  the  menace  which  creeps  upward  in  gray  folds 
from  the  horizon.  Men  who  are  accustomed  to  danger  oc¬ 
cupy  a  mental  attitude  towards  it  that  has  no  room  for  melo¬ 
dramatic  pose.  Simple,  sober,  the  unconscious  hero  of  the 
picture  turns  to  get  the  bearings  of  his  schooner  as  he  bends 
to  his  oars  with  all  the  steadiness  of  a  man  who  has  a  long 
way  to  row  and  who  must  neither  waste  his  strength  in 
spurts  nor  lose  his  head.  Small  amidst  the  waves  of  the  At¬ 
lantic  looks  his  dory,  far  away  seems  the  vessel,  hard  and 
cruel  is  the  complexion  of  the  sea.  .  .  .  Winslow  Homer 
would  in  all  probability  be  the  first  to  disclaim  any  intention 
of  philosophy,  of  literary  theories,  of  didacticism,  in  his  art. 
If  I  know  anything  of  the  nature  of  artists,  he  would  say,  in 
effect,  that  he  had  no  such  meaning  in  his  mind  when  he 
painted  ‘The  Fog  Warning.’  All  true  enough,  no  doubt. 
We  must  admire  and  approve  the  narrow,  exclusive  single- 
mindedness  of  the  artist ;  but  if  life  itself  be  full  of  these 
meanings,  the  art  that  holds  the  mirror  up  to  nature  cannot 
fail  to  reflect  them.  Let  it  be  the  painter’s  part  to  see,  to  ob- 


140 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


serve,  to  study  the  true  exterior  expression  of  things,  and 
the  interpretation  thereof  may  well  be  left  to  take  care  of 
itself.”  1 

In  the  making  of  this  picture,  Homer  was  obliged  to  place 
the  dory  where  he  could  draw  and  paint  it  under  the  proper 
light,  but  in  a  motionless  pose,  so  to  say ;  so  he  had  it  pulled 
up  on  the  beach  until  the  bow  was  elevated  at  the  desired 
angle  against  a  sand  dune ;  the  model  then  took  his  posi¬ 
tion  in  the  boat,  and  that  part  of  the  composition  was  fin¬ 
ished  without  much  difficulty.  The  surprising  success  of  the 
combination  lies  in  the  buoyancy  and  swing  of  the  boat  in 
its  relation  to  the  water  which  upholds  it.  Not  only  does  the 
dory  give  the  impression  of  movement  and  of  a  thing  afloat, 
it  also  seems  to  be  miles  on  miles  from  land.  I  have  heard 
several  persons  speak  of  the  water  as  too  hard.  Against  this 
opinion  it  would  be  perfectly  safe  to  trust  the  trained  judg¬ 
ment  of  the  painter,  even  if  our  own  experience  did  not  sup¬ 
ply  ample  evidence  in  his  favor.  “The  Fog  Warning”  was 
given  to  the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston,  in  1894,  by  Miss 
Norcross  and  Mr.  Grenville  H.  Norcross,  in  the  name  of  the 
Otis  Norcross  fund.  It  has  been  very  extensively  reproduced 
in  black-and-white,  and  is  a  strong  popular  favorite  with 
visitors  to  the  museum  galleries. 

The  picture  called  “  Lost  on  the  Grand  Banks”  is  dated 
1886.  It  has  certain  similarities  to  the  “Fog  Warning,” 
but  its  suggestions  of  tragedy  are  even  more  direct  and  ob¬ 
vious.  The  subject  may  be  described  as  follows  :  In  the  fore¬ 
ground  is  a  dory  with  two  fishermen,  wearing  oilskins  and 
sou’ westers.  Both  men  have  been  rowing,  but  are  now  rest¬ 
ing  on  their  oars,  the  stroke  bending  wearily  over  his  oar, 

1  “  American  Paintings  in  the  Boston  Art  Museum,”  by  William  Howe  Downes, 
in  Brush  and  Pencil,  Chicago. 


MARINE  PIECES  WITH  FIGURES  141 


and  turning  his  head  to  the  right  to  look,  vainly,  for  any  signs 
of  the  schooner,  which  has  been  hid  by  the  wreaths  of  cold 
gray  fog  which  are  stealing  over  the  surface  of  the  rough 
sea.  The  other  oarsman,  leaving  his  thwart,  and  grasping  the 
gunwale  to  steady  himself,  has  risen  stiffly  to  his  feet,  and  is 
peering  anxiously  into  the  smother  of  fog  off  to  port,  as  if  he 
fancied  he  had  seen  some  dim  shape  in  the  distance  in  that 
direction,  and  were  straining  his  eyes  to  make  out  if  it  might 
perchance  be  anything  more  than  a  figment.  The  boat  is 
rising,  with  a  twisting  motion,  on  a  great  wave,  the  bow  to 
the  right,  at  an  angle  which  brings  the  starboard  quarter 
of  the  craft  nearest  to  the  point  of  vision ;  and  the  spume  of 
the  near  wave-crest  shoots  above  the  boat’s  side,  as  if  the 
sea  were  hungry  to  swallow  its  prey.  Is  it  necessary  to  say 
how  this  sea  is  rendered?  Not,  surely,  to  those  who  are 
familiar  with  the  deep-sea  pictures  of  Homer’s  prime.  The 
drawing  of  the  wave  forms,  the  gradations  of  gray,  saturated 
atmosphere,  the  mysterious  sense  of  swirling  vapors,  alter¬ 
nately  thickening  and  thinning,  and  the  irresistible  sugges- 
tion  of  a  vast  hollow  space,  far  from  land,  in  which  the  tiny 
bark  is  tossing  helpless,  a  mere  speck  in  an  infinitude  of  de¬ 
vouring  waters,  of  boundless  and  heartless  wastes,  oppress 
the  mind  with  a  poignant  realization  of  the  desperate  pass 
to  which  these  men  have  come. 

Here  we  see  the  imagination,  using  nothing  but  realities  of 
the  strictest  nature,  working  out  pictorial  results  that  speak 
to  the  emotions  and  sympathies,  appealing  to  the  inextin¬ 
guishable  human  reverence  for  the  modest  and  brave  man’s 
performance  of  the  day’s  duty.  If  I  read  the  moral  into  the 
picture,  it  is  because  I  cannot  help  it.  The  underlying  mo¬ 
tive  of  the  fisherman’s  adventure  is  a  heroic  unselfishness 
and  a  willingness  to  take  what  comes.  This  glorifies  the 


142 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


hard,  stern,  rough,  weary  ways  of  his  life ;  weaves  the  rain¬ 
bow  hues  of  romance  about  his  toilsome  and  risky  calling ; 
nay,  invests  his  sufferings,  his  despair,  his  death,  all  borne 
with  silent  stoicism,  with  the  sacred  light  of  honor,  of  hope, 
of  manhood  vindicated. 

“Lost  on  the  Grand  Banks”  was  first  exhibited  at  the 
old  club-house  of  the  Saint  Botolph  Club,  at  85  Boylston 
Street,  Boston,  in  the  spring  exhibition  of  1886,  held  from 
April  15  to  May  1.  It  was  listed  at  eighteen  hundred  dollars. 
It  is  now  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  John  A.  Spoor  of  Chicago, 
who  lent  it  to  the  autumn  exhibition  of  American  paintings 
and  sculpture  at  the  Art  Institute  of  Chicago  in  1910. 

“Undertow,”  finished  in  1886,  was  exhibited  in  New  York 
in  1887,  at  the  Academy,  where  it  was  hung  in  a  place  of 
honor  on  the  north  wall  of  the  south  gallery.  It  was  exhibited 
soon  afterwards  in  Boston.  As  in  “The  Life  Line,”  of  1884, 
this  composition  is  an  original  and  thrilling  pictorial  episode 
of  rescue.  The  picture  had  been  begun  before  Homer  left 
New  York,  and  much  of  the  work  on  it  had  been  done  on  the 
roof  of  the  studio  building  there.  The  incident  itself  had  been 
witnessed  by  the  artist  at  Atlantic  City,  at  the  time  when  he 
was  there  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  the  data  for  the  pic¬ 
ture  of  “The  Life  Line.”  The  two  young  women  who  posed 
for  the  half-drowned  bathers  in  “Undertow”  were  locked  in 
each  other’s  arms  and  dressed  in  bathing  suits,  which  were 
drenched  with  water  thrown  over  them,  so  that  the  effect  of 
the  sun  on  the  wet  clothing  and  the  bare  arms  as  well  as  the 
faces  and  hair  should  be  entirely  in  accordance  with  the  nat¬ 
ural  appearance  of  the  group  emerging  from  the  surf.  The 
incident  depicted  is  not  uncommon.  The  two  young  women 
are  being  brought  out  of  the  surf  by  two  men  who  have 
saved  them  from  drowning.  Like  all  good  pictures,  this  one 


UNDERTOW 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Edward  D. 
Adams,  New  York 


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MARINE  PIECES  WITH  FIGURES  H3 


tells  its  own  story.  Some  of  the  details  may  be  left  to  the 
imagination,  but  every  one  may  infer  all  the  significant  and 
vital  effects  from  an  examination  of  the  painting.  The  inter¬ 
laced  forms  of  the  two  women  in  the  middle  of  the  group 
indicate  that  in  all  probability  one  of  the  bathers  ventured 
beyond  her  depth  and  was  caught  and  swept  seaward  by  the 
treacherous  undertow,  and  that  when  the  other  woman  un¬ 
dertook  to  help  her,  the  more  exhausted  and  frightened  of 
the  pair  threw  her  arms  about  the  friend’s  neck,  thus  imped¬ 
ing  her  movements  and  adding  to  her  own  peril.  Assistance, 
however,  was  at  hand  in  the  nick  of  time :  here  are  two  hardy 
swimmers,  one  a  young  man  in  swimming  trunks,  the  other 
a  fisherman  or  a  member  of  a  life-saving  crew,  who  have  suc¬ 
ceeded  in  bringing  the  women  into  shallow  water,  and  are 
just  about  to  carry  them  up  onto  the  beach,  not  too  soon,  how¬ 
ever,  since  one  of  the  two  has  lost  consciousness,  and  both 
are  apparently  helpless  and  exhausted. 

As  a  background  for  the  group  of  four  figures,  which  is 
composed  chainwise,  all  linked  together,  yet  each  link  hav¬ 
ing  its  own  individuality,  there  is  a  huge  blue-green  wave 
coming  towards  us,  and  about  to  break  over  the  figures  in 
the  foreground.  Shining  with  moisture,  in  the  full,  strong 
light  of  a  noonday  sun,  the  figures  are  wonderfully  an  or¬ 
ganic  part  of  the  luminous  scene.  The  striking  linear  beauty 
of  “Undertow  ”  was  cordially  and  justly  praised  by  Mrs.  Van 
Rensselaer,  who  wrote  that  the  lines  of  the  figures  “had  that 
harmony  and  dignity  which  we  call  Greek,  for  no  better  rea¬ 
son  than  that  so  few  of  us  know  how  to  see  and  appreciate 
them  when  by  some  happy  chance  actual  existence  sets  them 
before  our  eyes.”  1 

1  Six  Portraits.  By  Mrs.  Schuyler  Van  Rensselaer.  Boston  and  New  York: 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1894. 


144 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


The  purely  artistic  interest  and  beauty  of  this  work,  with 
its  audacious  grouping  of  four  figures,  was,  however,  not 
fully  appreciated  at  the  time  it  was  shown,  in  1887.  On  the 
one  hand  a  certain  number  of  doctrinaires  could  not  accept 
without  protest  a  painting  so  literary,  so  much  like  a  mere 
illustration,  and  on  the  other  hand  there  were  naturally  many 
persons  who  could  enjoy  its  human  interest  but  were  not 
qualified  to  realize  the  aesthetic  distinction  of  the  picture,  its 
extraordinary  beauty  of  design,  its  superb  construction,  the 
splendor  of  its  lighting  and  its  color. 

“Undertow”  was  excellently  reproduced  in  the  “Tatler,” 
a  London  periodical,  on  August  3,  1910,  with  this  curiously 
misleading  inscription  above  the  engraving :  — 

And  in  their  death  they  were  not  divided. 

Of  course  the  painting  depicts  a  successful  rescue  from 
death  by  drowning,  and  not,  as  the  “Tatler”  editors  imply, 
the  recovery  of  the  bodies  of  two  drowned  persons. 

Although  a  great  work  of  art  may  be  no  greater  on  account 
of  the  special  difficulties  that  beset  the  artist  in  making  it, 
we  have  to  remember  that  such  subjects  as  “Undertow”  are 
necessarily  painted  in  a  large  degree  from  memory ;  and  I 
speak  of  it  here  because  it  is  interesting  to  note  to  what  an 
extent  a  painter  is  able  to  develop  this  faculty,  the  exercise 
of  which  involves  some  of  the  most  astounding  mental  feats 
to  be  seen  in  the  practice  of  art.  One  of  the  things  that  may 
be  depended  upon  in  Homer’s  work  is  the  total  absence  of 
“chic”  or  “fake”  passages.  What  he  sets  before  us  are  the 
things  he  has  seen  and  known.  He  never  invented,  —  in  the 
sense  of  conjuring  up  scenes  and  events.  He  deals  wholly 
with  realities,  and  is  incapable  of  fiction. 

“  Undertow”  is  owned  by  Mr.  Edward  D.  Adams,  of  New 


MARINE  PIECES  WITH  FIGURES  145 

York.  Winslow  Homer’s  younger  brother,  in  allusion  to  its 
sinuous  interlocked  figures,  calls  it  the  “worms  for  bait 
picture.” 

Two  watercolors  dated  1887  belong  to  the  Tynemouth 
series,  and  were  completed  and  dated  five  years  after  the 
studies  were  made  in  England.  These  were  the  “  Sea  on  the 
Bar”  and  “Danger”  of  the  Thomas  B.  Clarke  collection. 
“Sea  on  the  Bar”  is  graphically  described  in  the  Clarke 
catalogue  of  1899  :  — 

“A  breezy  sky  and  sea,  with  surf  piling  up,  and  green 
water  heavily  moving.  In  the  foreground  is  a  sand-bar  on 
which  the  water  surges,  and,  in  the  distance,  a  bit  of  shore 
dark  under  a  gray  sky.  A  small  sailboat  labors  stolidly,  and 
the  swirling  clouds  fly  along,  impelled  by  strong  winds.  A 
veritable  bit  of  nature,  realistically  indicated.” 

This  watercolor  was  bought  by  Rev.  W.  S.  Rainsford  of 
New  York,  for  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  dollars.  The  de¬ 
scription  of  the  other  one,  “  Danger,”  is  not  so  good,  failing 
in  exactitude.  It  runs  thus :  — 

“  Two  fisherwomen  trudge  along  the  rocks,  unmindful  of 
the  gale,  to  give  warning  of  a  ship,  to  the  left,  laboring  heavily 
and  obviously  in  trouble.  Their  faces  are  set  in  determination, 
and  their  skirts  are  blown  by  the  terrific  wind  which  piles  up 
the  sea  against  the  shore.  The  sky  is  dark  and  fierce-looking, 
in  effective  contrast  to  the  brilliancy  of  the  white  breakers, 
which  dash  furiously  on  the  shore.” 

According  to  my  recollection,  the  vessel  here  alluded  to 
is  not  a  ship,  but  a  sloop,  which  is  simply  trying  hard  to  claw 
off  a  lee  shore.  The  faces  of  the  two  women  may  be  set  in 
determination,  but,  as  they  are  not  turned  our  way,  it  is  hard 
to  say  how  the  catalogue  editor  obtained  this  information. 

Charles  Savage  Homer,  Jr.,  Winslow  Homer’s  brother, 


146 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


loaned  to  the  American  Watercolor  Society  for  its  twentieth 
annual  exhibition,  in  1887,  two  beautiful  southern  landscapes, 
a  “Sketch  in  Key  West”  and  a  “Sketch  in  Florida,”  which 
had  been  painted  in  1886,  on  the  way  home  from  Cuba.  The 
crispness  of  the  treatment,  the  purity  and  transparency  of 
the  color,  and  the  breadth  and  firmness  of  the  drawing  of  the 
palms,  palmettos,  live  oaks,  hung  with  Spanish  moss,  and  the 
other  tropical  vegetation,  were  truly  characteristic  of  a  master 
painter. 

Arthur  B.  Homer,  the  younger  brother,  owned  an  old 
plumb-stemmed  sloop  that  he  and  his  two  sons  used  to  knock 
about  in  at  Prout’s  Neck.  In  the  cabin  were  three  wooden 
panels,  two  of  them  rather  wide,  on  the  sides,  the  third  a 
short  one  set  in  the  forward  partition.  Winslow  Homer, 
noticing  these  vacant  spaces,  suggested  that  he  would  some 
day  paint  something  to  fill  the  panels.  In  1886  he  started  the 
series  of  promised  sketches.  The  two  side  panels  were  com¬ 
pleted.  One  of  them  represented  a  fleet  of  Gloucester  fishing 
vessels;  the  other  two  schooners  at  anchor  with  their  sails  up 
against  a  sunset  sky  of  lemon  yellow,  a  very  handsome  effect. 
For  the  shorter  panel  forward  he  began  to  make  a  black-and- 
white  oil  study  of  a  ship’s  officer  in  uniform  taking  a  noon 
observation,  his  back  turned  towards  the  observer.  His 
brother  Arthur  posed  for  this  figure.  When  it  was  almost 
done,  Winslow  Homer  suddenly  stopped  work  on  it,  and,  say¬ 
ing,  “  I  am  not  going  to  do  anything  more  on  this  panel. 
You  can  have  it  if  you  want  it,”  he  gathered  up  his  brushes 
and  rushed  into  the  studio.  An  idea  for  a  picture  had  sud¬ 
denly  come  to  him.  This,  as  the  reader  may  have  guessed 
already,  is  the  genesis  of  that  deep-sea  classic,  “Eight  Bells.” 

Somehow,  though  nobody  can  say  precisely  how,  “  Eight 
Bells  ”  fills  the  remotest  corners  of  the  mind  with  an  over- 


EIGHT  BELLS 

From  a  wood  engraving  by  Henry  Wolf ,  after  the  oil 
painting  by  Winslow  Homer  in  the  collection  of  Mr. 
Edward  T.  Stotesbury,  Philadelphia.  Courtesy  of  the 
Century  Company,  New  York 


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MARINE  PIECES  WITH  FIGURES  H7 


whelming  impression  of  the  power  and  infinitude  of  the  open 
sea.  The  action  depicted  is  an  ordinary  if  important  part  of 
the  day’s  work,  an  everyday  bit  of  routine  on  board  ship. 
There  is  not  the  slightest  occasion,  nor  is  there  the  slightest 
endeavor,  to  make  it  appear  any  more  interesting,  dramatic, 
or  heroic,  than  it  really  is;  yet  there  is  something  about 
“Eight  Bells”  that  grips  the  mind  and  the  memory,  and  will 
not  let  go.  Two  bearded  seamen  are  seen  at  two-thirds-length 
on  the  deck  of  a  vessel.  Both  men  wear  sou’ westers  and  heavy 
reefing  jackets.  The  chief  figure,  probably  that  of  the  master 
of  the  craft,  occupies  the  centre  of  the  composition,  and  stands 
near  the  bulwarks,  with  his  back  turned  towards  the  observer, 
while  he  holds  up  the  sextant  with  both  hands  and  gazes  into 
the  telescope,  “shooting  the  sun,”  as  it  is  colloquially  ex¬ 
pressed  by  Jack  Tar.  His  assistant,  at  the  right,  who  is  seen 
in  profile,  holding  the  chronometer,  bends  over  it,  very  intent, 
to  determine  the  longitude.  One  sees  nothing  of  the  vessel 
except  the  upper  part  of  the  bulwarks  and  a  stanchion  just 
behind  the  mate’s  back.  The  sea  is  seething,  all  weltering 
with  white  foam,  and  seems  to  have  been  under  the  lash  of 
a  hard  gale,  which  is  perhaps  just  blowing  itself  out,  for  the 
clouds  are  breaking,  though  they  are  still  swirling  in  heaped- 
up  masses  of  torn  and  driven  vapors,  cold  and  stern  and  wild. 

We  may  account  for  the  effect  the  picture  produces  on 
the  imagination  of  the  observer  in  no  other  way  than  by 
realizing  the  strong  influence  of  the  association  of  ideas. 
Through  this,  even  in  the  case  of  persons  who  have  never 
been  at  sea,  and  whose  conceptions  of  sea  life  are  therefore 
entirely  due  to  literature  and  pictures  and  hearsay,  such  a 
common  and  prosaic  detail  of  the  day’s  routine  on  board 
ship  as  taking  the  observations  at  noon  to  ascertain  the  posi¬ 
tion  of  the  vessel  is  invested  with  a  certain  aura  of  mystery 


148 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


and  wonder.  And  this  is  not  at  all  surprising,  for,  to  the 
least  imaginative  mind,  the  ability  to  ascertain  precisely 
the  latitude  and  longitude  at  which  a  given  vessel  is  situated 
at  a  given  moment,  in  the  vast  waste  of  waters,  must  be  one 
of  the  perpetual  marvels  of  science,  an  achievement  worthy 
of  admiration  if  not  of  awe.  To  the  sublime  thought  of  the 
mighty  ocean  and  its  thousands  of  square  miles  of  never- 
resting  billows,  is,  then,  superadded  the  inspiring  idea  of  the 
unconquerable  ingenuity,  tenacity,  and  bravery  of  mankind. 
Such  associations  of  ideas  are  evoked  by  “  Eight  Bells,”  and 
when  viewed  with  a  full  realization  of  the  significance  of  the 
action  depicted,  it  assumes  that  character  of  symbolic  nobil¬ 
ity  which  lifts  all  Winslow  Homer’s  best  pictures  of  the  life 
of  the  sailor  to  a  plane  of  epic  grandeur. 

“Eight  Bells”  was  bought  by  Mr.  Thomas  B.  Clarke,  and 
in  the  sale  of  his  collection  in  1899  it  brought  forty-seven 
hundred  dollars.  It  was  bought  by  Mr.  Hermann  Schaus,  the 
dealer,  who  in  turn  sold  it  to  the  present  owner,  Mr.  E.  T. 
Stotesbury  of  Philadelphia. 

The  year  1887  was  notable  for  the  production  of  one  of 
the  most  important  of  the  painter’s  figure  pieces,  “  Hark  1 
the  Lark.”  This  composition,  measuring  thirty  by  thirty-five 
inches,  was  regarded  by  Homer  himself  as  the  most  impor¬ 
tant  picture  he  had  painted  up  to  that  time,  and  the  very 
best  one,  as,  he  said,  the  figures  in  it  were  large  enough  to 
have  some  expression  in  their  faces.  It  was  a  replica  of  the 
watercolor  of  1883,  painted  from  studies  made  in  Tyne¬ 
mouth,  and  entitled  “  A  Voice  from  the  Cliffs.”  According 
to  a  letter  written  by  Homer  in  March,  1902,  to  Messrs.  M. 
O’Brien  &  Son,  picture  dealers,  in  Chicago,  this  was  the 
only  instance  in  thirty  years  in  which  he  had  made  a  replica 
of  any  of  his  works.  He  wrote  :  — 


MARINE  PIECES  WITH  FIGURES  H9 


March  20,  1902. 

M.  O’Brien  &  Son, 

Gentlemen, —  You  ask  me  if  the  picture  “  Lee  Shore,” 
recently  sold  in  Providence,  is  a  duplicate.  It  is  not.  Only 
once  in  the  last  thirty  years  have  I  made  a  duplicate,  and 
that  was  a  watercolor  from  my  oil  picture  now  owned  by 
the  Layton  Art  Gallery,  Milwaukee,  called  “  Hark !  the  Lark.” 

It  is  the  most  important  picture  I  ever  painted,  and  the 
very  best  one,  as  the  figures  are  large  enough  to  have  some 
expression  in  their  faces.  The  watercolor  was  called  “A 
Voice  from  the  Cliff,”  and  well  known. 

Why  do  you  not  try  and  sell  the  “  Gulf  Stream  ”  to  the 
Layton  Art  Gallery,  or  some  other  public  gallery?  No  one 
would  expect  to  have  it  in  a  private  house.  I  will  write  you 
again  next  week. 

Yours  truly, 

Winslow  Homer. 

[Signed  with  a  rubber  stamp.] 

Scaeboro,  Me. 

It  is  evident,  however,  that  the  watercolor,  “  A  Voice  from 
the  Cliffs,”  belonging  to  Dr.  Alexander  C.  Humphreys,  was 
the  original,  and  the  oil  painting,  “  Hark !  the  Lark,”  the 
replica,  for  the  former  was  dated  1883,  and  the  latter  1887. 
The  oil  painting  was  acquired  by  the  Layton  Art  Gallery, 
Milwaukee,  Wisconsin,  about  1895,  and  was  a  gift  from  the 
founder  of  the  gallery,  Mr.  Frederick  Layton.  It  was  among 
the  pictures  exhibited  at  the  notable  loan  exhibition  of 
Homer’s  works  held  at  the  Carnegie  Institute,  Pittsburgh, 
in  the  spring  of  1908. 


CHAPTER  XII 

ETCHINGS— PAINTINGS  OF  THE  EARLY  NINETIES 
1888-1892.  TEtat.  52-56 

The  Series  of  Reproductions  of  his  Own  Paintings  —  “  Cloud  Shadows  ” 
—  “  The  West  Wind  ”  —  “  Signal  of  Distress  ”  —  “  Summer  Night”  — 
“  Huntsman  and  Dogs  ”  —  “  Coast  in  Winter.” 

IN  a  letter  written  in  the  spring  of  1902,  Homer  spoke  of 
the  watercolors  made  by  him  during  two  winters  in  the 
West  Indies  as  being,  in  his  judgment,  “as  good  work, 
with  the  exception  of  one  or  two  etchings,  as  I  ever  did.” 
The  etchings  of  which  he  thus  wrote  were  made  in  the  eight¬ 
ies,  and  were  reproductions  of  his  own  paintings.  He  made 
a  series  of  six  good-sized  plates,  in  1887,  1888,  and  1889,  after 
the  following  pictures  and  drawings:  “Eight  Bells,”  “Fly 
Fishing,  Saranac  Lake,”  “The  Life  Line,”  “Mending  the 
Nets,”  “  Perils  of  the  Sea,”  and  “Saved,”  this  last  being  an 
alternative  title  for  “Undertow.”  The  etching  after  the 
“Perils  of  the  Sea,”  one  of  the  Tynemouth  watercolors  of 
1881,  was  made  in  1887.  The  plate  was  thirteen  and  three 
quarters  by  twenty  and  one  quarter  inches  in  dimensions, 
and  it  was  published  by  C.  Klackner,  the  New  York  fine-art 
publisher,  in  two  editions,  one  a  remarque  parchment,  at 
thirty  dollars,  and  the  other  on  Japan  paper  at  twenty  dol¬ 
lars.  In  1888  he  etched  “Saved  ”  (“Undertow  ”),  after  the 
oil  painting  of  the  previous  year,  on  a  plate  measuring  sev¬ 
enteen  by  twenty-eight  inches ;  and  this  was  published  by 
Klackner  in  corresponding  editions.  “  Eight  Bells,”  which 


TO  THE  RESCUE 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Thomas  L. 
Manson,  Jr.,  New  York 


MOONLIGHT,  WOOD  ISLAND  LIGHT 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  George  A. 
Hearn,  New  York 


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WORK  OF  THE  EARLY  NINETIES  151 


was  painted  in  1888,  was  etched  in  1889;  the  plate  was 
eighteen  and  three  quarters  by  twenty-four  and  three  eighths 
inches.  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  this  etching  was  one  of 
the  “one  or  two”  plates  of  which  the  artist  thought  so  highly 
himself.  The  motive  of  “Eight  Bells”  is  one  that  lends  itself 
most  admiiably  to  translation  into  black-and-white,  and  the 
effect  of  light  on  the  water  and  in  the  wind-swept  masses  of 
clouds,  against  which  the  two  men’s  figures  are  projected  in 
dark  patterns,  is  largely  and  simply  rendered  in  the  etching. 
Of  the  remaining  three  etchings  of  the  series,  “The  Life 
Line  ”  is  the  most  remarkable  as  a  piece  of  free  engraving, 
the  agitated  silhouette  of  the  two  figures  suspended  above 
the  waves  making  a  bold  and  novel  mass  as  it  relieves  itself 
against  the  flying  clouds  of  spray  in  the  background.  This 
plate  is  on  a  smaller  scale  than  the  others,  being  only  twelve 
and  one  quarter  by  seventeen  and  one  quarter  inches  in 
dimensions.  Of  the  “Fly  Fishing,  Saranac  Lake”  (fourteen 
by  twenty  and  one  quarter  inches),  there  was  no  parchment 
edition,  the  artist’s  proofs  on  Japan  paper  being  offered  to 
the  public  at  fifteen  dollars.  “Mending  the  Nets,”  or,  as  it 
has  been  called,  “Mending  the  Tears,”  measured  fifteen  and 
one  half  by  twenty-one  and  one  half  inches,  and  was  copied 
from  one  of  the  Tynemouth  subjects,  awatercolor  represent¬ 
ing  two  sitting  figures  of  women,  which  was  exhibited  at  the 
twenty-fourth  exhibition  of  the  American  Watercolor  Society, 
New  York,  in  1891. 

Mr.  Klackner  not  only  published  the  six  etchings,  but  he 
issued  in  1890  and  1891  photogravure  plates  after  two  of 
Homer’s  oil  paintings,  “Hark!  the  Lark,”  painted  in  1887, 
and  “The  Signal  of  Distress,”  painted  in  1891.  Both  of  these 
reproductions  were  very  successful,  the  subjects  making  a 
strong  appeal  to  the  public  taste.  The  photogravures  were 


152 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


of  good  size,  the  “  Hark !  the  Lark  ”  measuring  nineteen  and 
three  quarters  by  twenty-five  and  one  half  inches,  and  the 
“Signal  of  Distress”  seventeen  and  one  half  by  twenty-seven 
and  one  half  inches.  They  were  issued  in  one  edition  only, 
artist’s  proofs  on  India  paper. 

As  an  illustration  of  what  Homer  believed  to  be  the  va¬ 
garies  of  the  public  taste,  Mr.  Chase1  quotes  the  following 
passage  from  a  letter  dated  Scarboro,  Maine,  May  14,  1888: 

“  I  have  an  idea  for  next  winter  if  what  I  am  now  engaged 
on  is  a  success,  and  Mr.  K.  is  agreeable.  That  is  to  exhibit 
an  oil  painting  in  a  robbery-box  with  an  etching  from  it  in 
the  end  of  your  gallery,  with  a  pretty  girl  at  the  desk  to  sell.” 

Mr.  Chase  explains  that  to  Homer  the  gaudy  glamour 
of  a  plush-lined  shadow-box  and  thick  plate  glass  meant 
nothing  else  than  robbery.  He  adds:  “I  think  it  could  be 
truly  said  that  no  man  was  less  moved  than  he  by  the  pres¬ 
tige  of  high  prices  and  the  entrance  to  great  collections, 
which  are  so  often  the  ‘  successful’  artist’s  chief  stock-in- 
trade.  His  honest  soul  revolted  at  a  success  bought  at  such 
a  cost.”  Homer  once  said  to  Mr.  Chase  that  if  he  could  be 
assured  of  a  yearly  income  from  his  painting  as  large  as  the 
average  salary  of  a  department-store  salesman  he  would  be 
content.  If  he  had  any  money  in  his  purse  he  would  never 
worry  about  where  the  next  was  coming  from. 

I  must  quote  a  little  further  from  Mr.  Chase’s  interesting 
reminiscences :  — 

“  Homer  was  less  influenced  by  others  and  by  what  others 
had  done  than  any  artist  — any  man,  I  may  as  well  say  —  I 
have  ever  known.  He  was  a  rare  visitor  to  public  galleries 
and  exhibitions.  When  there  his  attitude  was  that  of  a  de- 

1  “  Some  Recollections  of  Winslow  Homer,”  by  J.  Eastman  Chase.  Harp¬ 
er's  Weekly,  October  22,  1910. 


WORK  OF  THE  EARLY  NINETIES  153 


tached  and  unprejudiced  observer.  Names  meant  little  or 
nothing  to  him.  He  looked  at  any  picture  for  precisely  what 
it  might  have  to  say  to  him  —  the  name  of  the  painter,  whether 
great  or  small,  was  of  equal  indifference.  He  was  not  accus¬ 
tomed  to  speak  of  a  ‘  Corot’  or  a  ‘Turner’ ;  it  was  the  picture, 
pure  and  simple,  that  interested  or  did  not  interest  him.  His 
comment  was,  as  you  would  suppose,  fresh,  original,  pene¬ 
trating,  and  free  from  art  jargon.” 

Charles  S.  Homer  read  the  foregoing  paragraph  aloud  to 
me  a  few  days  after  the  publication  of  Mr.  Chase’s  article,  and 
remarked  that  it  was  very  true.  It  makes  an  art  critic  feel 
rather  cheap,  however ;  I  can  testify  as  to  that.  How  little  able 
we  are  to  look  at  a  picture  for  its  intrinsic  worth  to  us,  regard¬ 
less  of  its  authorship !  How  we  bow  down  to  names !  And  as 
to  art  jargon — -imagine  how  refreshing  it  must  have  been  to 
talk  with  a  painter  who  had  nothing  of  it ! 

The  oil  painting  entitled  “Cloud  Shadows”  was  painted 
in  1890.  This  is  a  seashore  subject  with  two  figures.  In  the 
foreground  is  a  sandy  beach,  with  a  wide  expanse  of  poverty- 
grass  just  above  the  high-water  mark.  The  line  of  the  beach 
curves  to  the  right,  where  it  extends  to  a  point,  beyond  which 
is  deep  blue  water  in  the  distance,  with  the  sails  of  several 
pleasure  boats.  A  deck,  the  only  remaining  portion  of  an  old 
wreck  which  has  been  cast  up  on  the  shore,  is  partly  visible 
in  the  immediate  foreground,  and  on  this  sits  a  young  woman, 
evidently  a  summer  visitor,  who  is  listening,  with  a  smile,  to 
the  yams  of  an  old  fisherman  in  a  sou’wester,  who  is  seated 
near  her  with  his  back  turned  towards  the  observer.  The  sky 
is  almost  filled  by  vaporous  gray  clouds,  driven  smartly  before 
the  wind,  which,  as  they  drift  rapidly  before  the  face  of  the 
sun,  cast  swiftly  moving  shadows  over  the  creamy  gray  sands 
of  the  beach.  Blue  sky  appears  here  and  there  in  the  inter- 


154 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


vals  between  the  swirling  masses  of  clouds.  These  clouds 
present  every  gradation  of  bluish  and  slaty  gray  as  the  light 
plays  upon  them.  The  treatment  of  this  busy  sky  is  most 
characteristic  and  subtle.  Its  beauty  of  color  and  of  move¬ 
ment  is  of  a  high  order.  The  observer  feels  that  its  aspect  is 
changing  even  as  he  looks,  and  in  few  pictures  is  the  effect 
of  “  open-and-shut  ”  weather  so  strongly  suggested.  Though 
the  relation  of  the  figures  to  the  landscape  is  not  so  important 
as  it  is  in  many  of  the  artist’s  more  dramatic  works,  it  is  suf¬ 
ficiently  organic  to  make  it  clear  that  the  composition  would 
suffer  by  their  absence.  The  pictorial  balance  and  unity  of 
the  work  is  very  perfect,  and  though  the  story-telling  element 
is  here  only  an  incident  in  a  landscape  of  great  freshness  and 
charm,  yet  it  is  an  essential  part  of  the  scheme.  This  work 
belongs  to  the  category  of  Homer’s  pictures  in  which  the 
splendor  and  beauty  of  nature  are  undimmed  by  any  sugges¬ 
tion  of  stress  or  struggle  ;  its  atmosphere  is  exhilarating  and 
genial ;  and  there  is  even  a  hint  of  the  holiday  mood.  The  pic¬ 
ture  is  owned  by  Mr.  R.  C.  Hall,  of  Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania. 

“  Rowing  Homeward,”  a  watercolor,  was  also  painted  in 
1890.  Under  an  evening  sky,  in  which  is  seen  a  red  sun, 
shining  through  the  purple  mist,  some  sailors  are  rowing  a 
boat,  while  one  man  steers.  The  water  reflects  the  pale  green 
tints  of  the  upper  sky,  and  is  quiet,  save  for  a  ripple  here  and 
there.  The  sentiment  of  evening  is  finely  expressed,  and 
broadly  rendered.  This  watercolor  was  in  the  Thomas  B. 
Clarke  collection,  and  at  the  sale  in  1899  it  was  bought  by 
Charles  L.  Freer  of  Detroit,  Michigan,  for  a  friend. 

“  Coast  in  Winter”  and  “Sunlight  on  the  Coast,”  both  be- 
longingto  Mr.  John  G.  Johnson  of  Philadelphia,  were  painted 
in  1890.  The  former  is  thus  described  in  the  catalogue  of  the 
New  York  memorial  exhibition  of  1911 :  — 


ROWING  HOMEWARD 

From  a  watercolor 


CLOUD  SHADOWS 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  R.  C. 
Hall,  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania 


■ 


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WORK  OF  THE  EARLY  NINETIES  155 


“  A  rough,  rocky  shore,  partly  covered  with  snow,  through 
which  the  rocks  show  dark  brown  in  places,  with  dried  grass 
and  weeds  growing  in  the  crevices.  The  cliff  slopes  down  to 
the  right  in  the  middle  distance ;  beyond,  green  waves  dash 
against  the  locks,  throwing  high  their  mist  against  a  gray 
sky.  In  the  foreground  stands  the  small  figure  of  a  man  wear¬ 
ing  a  blue  coat  and  carrying  on  his  back  a  dead  wild  duck 
which  he  holds  over  his  left  shoulder ;  under  his  right  arm  is 
a  gun.” 

Of  “Sunlight  on  the  Coast”  the  same  catalogue  gives  this 
description :  — 

“A  heavy  green  wave  is  breaking  over  the  brown  rocks 
in  the  lower  left  corner  of  the  picture.  Two  masses  of  rock 
rise  out  of  the  foam,  and  at  the  extreme  left  spray  is  thrown 
up.  Dull  gray  sea  beyond,  with  a  steamship  on  the  horizon 
at  the  right.  Gray  sky  and  fog,  through  which  the  sunlight 
falls  on  the  crest  of  the  wave,  the  spray,  and  the  foam  in  the 
foreground.” 

The  most  important  oil  painting  of  1891  is  “The  West 
Wind.”  This  is  a  simple  design  of  few  and  telling  lines,  in 
which  the  steady  and  powerful  sweep  of  the  off-shore  wind 
is  suggested  with  force  and  grandeur  of  style.  The  tawny 
foreground,  sloping  from  left  to  right,  is  overgrown  with  sparse 
grasses  and  junipers,  bending  under  the  weight  of  the  blast. 
At  the  right,  the  figure  of  a  woman  stands  with  her  back 
turned,  as  she  watches  the  surf,  while  she  holds  her  tam-o’- 
shanter  cap  on  her  head  with  her  right  hand.  The  white  spray 
is  flung  high  as  the  breakers  roll  in,  and  beyond  them  the 
troubled  surface  of  the  waves  recedes  into  the  gray  and  leaden 
mystery  of  the  horizon.  The  impressiveness  of  the  work  is 
due  largely  to  the  simple  nobility  of  the  design.  The  canvas, 
thirty-two  by  forty-six  inches  in  dimensions,  is  almost  equally 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


156 

divided  into  two  masses,  with  the  small  figure  as  an  accent ; 
but  the  spacing  is  absolutely  calculated  to  give  the  desired 
pictorial  impression,  with  the  least  amount  of  detail  consist¬ 
ent  with  verisimilitude.  Everything  is  condensed  into  the 
most  succinct  and  significant  form,  and  every  stroke  tells. 
The  imagination  is  powerfully  stirred  through  the  appeal  to 
associations.  “  The  West  Wind  ”  was  bought  by  Mr.  Samuel 
Untermeyer  of  New  York  at  the  Clarke  sale  in  1899,  for  six¬ 
teen  hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars. 

“The  Signal  of  Distress,”  “A  Summer  Night,”  and  two 
Prout’s  Neck  marine  pieces  were  first  exhibited  at  Reichard 
&  Company’s  gallery  in  New  York  in  the  winter  of  1891. 
Alfred  Trumble,  editor  of  “The  Collector,”  an  accomplished 
art  critic,  wrote  of  this  group  of  works  in  his  paper,  February 
1,  1891,  as  fellows:  — 

“To  say  that  Mr.  Winslow  Homer  exhibits  at  Reichard  & 
Company’s  galleries  the  four  most  complete  and  powerful 
pictures  he  has  painted  is  to  do  them  but  half  justice.  They 
are  in  their  way  the  four  most  powerful  pictures  that  any  man 
of  our  generation  and  people  has  painted.  Nothing  of  the 
artist’s  previous  work  touches  them,  and,  what  is  better  still, 
they  are  sufficient  to  indicate  to  any  one  who  has  followed 
the  career  of  this  original  and  rarely  gifted  man,  that  he  has 
worked  the  problem  of  his  art  to  a  solution  from  which  he 
will  not  retrograde. 

“  Of  the  four  canvases,  one  only  comes  within  the  limits 
of  an  actual  composition,  and  it  is  in  fact  more  of  a  dramatic 
bit  of  realism  in  itself.  It  is  called  ‘  The  Signal  of  Distress.’ 
It  is  morning  at  sea,  after  a  night  of  winter  and  of  tempest. 
The  great  tumbling  seas  are  still  agitated  and  pallid  with 
wrath,  in  the  livid  storm  light  lingering  in  the  sky.  Out  of 
the  mist  that  hangs  over  the  horizon,  a  full-rigged  ship,  with 


WORK  OF  THE  EARLY  NINETIES  157 


all  sail  set,  as  if  flying  for  her  life  from  a  pursuing  doom, 
flies  her  flag  from  the  royal  yard,  union  down.  In  the  fore¬ 
ground  is  a  strip  of  the  deck  of  a  steamer,  dripping  with 
washes  of  brine.  The  officer  of  the  deck  shouts  a  command. 
The  watch  come  rushing  to  the  life-boat,  rude,  strong  figures, 
in  their  oilskins  of  the  night.  Two  men  clamber  into  the  boat, 
which  swings  at  its  davits.  One  can  see  that  in  a  moment 
more  the  falls  will  be  cast  off  and  the  rescue  be  tossing  in  the 
foaming  lee  of  the  ship.  The  color  of  this  picture,  the  wild 
sweep  of  wind  and  sea,  the  feeling  of  penetrating  moisture, 
and  of  the  titanic  power  of  angry  elements,  — all  go  together 
in  one  magnificent  harmony  of  conception  and  execution, 
and  render  it  a  veritable  masterpiece. 

“  Of  less  interest  of  mere  subject,  and  much  greater  power 
of  execution  and  massiveness  of  quality  is  the  picture  called 
‘  Moonlight.’ 1  Across  the  foreground  goes  the  platform  of  a 
seaside  hotel,  perched  on  a  rocky  bluff  above  the  surf.  On 
the  platform  two  girls  dance  as  partners,  their  figures  lighted 
by  the  lamplight  from  the  house.  Below  the  platform,  figures 
make  a  dim  group  on  the  rocks,  watching  the  breakers.  The 
sea  rises  to  a  high  horizon,  heaving  in  enormous  swells,  which 
burst  in  foam  on  the  shore.  On  the  rollers  an  unseen  moon 
makes  a  great,  scintillating  pathway  to  the  horizon,  and  the 
figures  of  the  dancers  are  modeled  against  it.  Far  away  to 
the  right,  on  a  low  headland,  the  red  light  of  a  light-house 
spots  the  purple  night  like  a  star.  To  say  that  the  water  in 
this  picture  moves,  is  not  all.  It  flashes  into  ripples  under  the 
eye,  its  great,  resonant  rumble  and  its  crashing  onset  on  the 
shore  fill  the  ear.  The  painting  of  it  is  of  a  vast  and  splendid 
boldness,  but  ample  in  finish  and  of  the  greatest  resolution 
of  handling. 


1  ‘"‘A  Summer  Night.” 


158 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


“  In  ‘A  Marine  on  the  Coast’  a  colossal  breaker  of  the  in¬ 
tense,  translucent  green  that  belongs  to  the  sea  on  deep  and 
rocky  coasts  is  combing  over  to  pound  down  upon  the  iron 
shore.  Its  flanks  and  hollows  reflect  flashes  of  light  from  the 
cold  sky.  .  .  .  The  fourth  picture  is  also  a  Maine  coast  sub¬ 
ject.  It  is  in  winter.  The  steep  and  rocky  shore  descends 
from  left  to  right,  its  stratified  slope  patched  with  ice  and 
snow.  Behind  it  the  unseen  surf  breaks,  whirling  a  billow¬ 
ing  cloud  of  foam  towards  the  steel-cold  sky.  To  those  who 
have  ever  been  fascinated  by  the  terrific  reality  of  such  a 
scene,  this  picture  will  come  like  the  opening  of  a  window 
in  their  memories.  They  will  surely  feel  in  it  the  piercing 
cold,  and  the  tremor  of  the  earth  under  the  shock  of  the  sea, 
and  hear,  through  the  long  thunder  of  the  surf  rolling  down 
the  shore,  like  cannon  on  a  line  of  battle,  the  bitter  piping 
of  the  blast. 

“A  great  American  artist  in  the  full  greatness  of  an  art 
as  truly  American  as  its  creator  —  what  words  could  mean 
more  ?  ” 

I  have  quoted  from  Mr.  Trumble’s  criticism  at  some  length, 
because  it  seems  to  me  that  no  one  could  improve  upon  his 
spirited  description  of  the  four  pictures  in  question.  “  The 
Signal  of  Distress”  is  one  of  Homer’s  best  illustrative  paint¬ 
ings  of  sea  life.  Like  his  other  pictures  of  that  life,  it  does 
not  attempt  to  tell  too  much,  but  leaves  something  to  the 
imagination.  It  deals  with  a  situation  which  is  of  almost 
daily  occurrence,  yet  which  never  loses  the  power  to  thrill  us 
by  its  possibilities  of  tragedy  and  of  heroism.  It  gives  but  a 
glimpse  of  one  momentary  aspect  of  the  story ;  all  the  rest 
is  implied.  As  Mr.  Trumble’s  words  show  —  “  in  a  moment 
more  the  falls  will  be  cast  off  and  the  rescue  be  tossing  in 
the  foaming  lee  of  the  ship  ”  —  one  cannot  look  upon  the 


SUMMER  SQUALL 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Morris  J. 
Hirsch,  New  York 


SUNLIGHT  ON  THE  COAST 
From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  John  G. 
Johnson,  Philadelphia 


.A  z\  aoI.C 


.0  «s\o\  . 


■ 

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frvl  wsVi  .A^VAl 


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■Ail  \r,  \io3  ssft  su  \io  asU  wa-ft 


WORK  OF  THE  EARLY  NINETIES  159 


picture  without  prefiguring  in  the  mind’s  eye  all  that  is  go¬ 
ing  to  happen.  The  artist  has  chosen  well  the  moment  to 
put  before  our  eyes ;  and  he  has  limited  wisely  the  visual 
field.  It  may  be  said,  without  invidious  comparisons,  that 
he  escapes  the  pitfalls  that  so  often  beset  painters  of  moving 
accidents  by  flood  and  field,  through  his  understanding  and 
use  of  the  artistic  principle  of  suggestion.  “  The  Signal  of 
Distress  ”  is  more  than  an  illustration  ;  it  may  stand  for  a 
symbol  of  the  helping  hand  of  the  larger  freemasonry  of  the 
open  sea,  where  the  desperate  need  of  all  fellow-creatures  in 
emergencies  is  the  imperative  call  to  prompt  and  willing 
and  instant  aid.  Finally,  the  picture  is  one  of  those  charac¬ 
teristically  fine  compositions  which  have  the  air  of  inevita¬ 
bility,  of  almost  startling  familiarity,  as  of  a  scene  that  one 
has  witnessed  in  a  dream. 

“The  Signal  of  Distress”  was  exhibited  in  the  sixth  exhi¬ 
bition  of  the  International  Society  of  Sculptors,  Painters,  and 
Gravers,  at  the  New  Gallery,  Regent  Street,  London,  in  the 
winter  of  1906.  An  American  sent  a  communication  to  the 
“  Pall  Mall  Gazette,”  protesting  indignantly  against  the  ac¬ 
tion  of  the  hanging  committee  in  giving  the  work  a  very 
poor  place.  Thereupon  the  authorities  of  the  International 
Society  vouchsafed  an  amusing  semi-official  explanation  to 
the  effect  that  the  committee  had  intentionally  placed  the 
picture  in  a  comparatively  obscure  location  because  they 
considered  it  to  be  one  of  his  inferior  works. 

As  for  “A  Summer  Night,”  the  description  written  by  Mr. 
Trumble  is  preferable  to  my  own  longer  one,  which,  I  fear, 
sounds  too  much  like  an  attempt  at  fine  writing ;  yet,  after  this 
preamble,  I  am  inclined  to  give  the  substance  of  it,  qtiand 
mime ,  because  it  supplements  Mr.  Trumble’s  sketchy  outlines 
by  a  little  more  of  the  color  and  emotion  of  the  work  :  — 


i6o 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


“  The  ocean,  at  night,  seen  from  the  brow  of  a  high  cliff ; 
a  broad  and  glittering  field  of  moonlight  reflected  on  the 
tossing  waters ;  the  shadowed  curve  of  a  mighty  wave  about 
to  fall  and  break  upon  the  rocks  ;  on  the  brink  of  the  cliff, 
the  sombre  silhouette  of  a  group  of  people  watching  the 
surf ;  and  in  the  foreground  two  stalwart  girls  waltzing  in 
the  moonlight.  The  blue,  purple,  slate,  and  silver-gray  hues 
of  the  night  form  a  bold,  rich,  and  novel  harmony  in  a  minor 
key,  an  effect  of  splendid  and  moving  majesty.  The  move¬ 
ment  of  the  waves  is  indicated  by  the  broadest  methods 
known  to  the  painter’s  art ;  that  is  to  say,  by  the  masterly 
suggestion  and  summary  characterization  of  the  forms  mo¬ 
mentarily  assumed  by  the  most  mobile  of  elements,  the  play 
of  light  upon  those  forms,  and  all  the  accidents  and  whims 
of  what  seems  like  the  chaotic  acme  of  instability.  Under 
the  phantasmal  light  of  the  moon,  the  titanic  lift  of  the  dark 
billow  which  comes  impending  to  its  crashing  fall,  the  fan¬ 
tastic  shape  of  its  crest  uplifted  against  the  lighted  expanse 
of  glimmering  blue  and  molten  silver  behind  it,  and  the 
swirling  hollow  weltering  in  its  front,  are  full  of  the  expres¬ 
sion  of  power,  grandeur,  and  mystery.  The  group  of  figures 
is  a  well  composed,  flat,  dark  mass  against  the  illuminated 
sea ;  and  in  it  is  to  be  noted  the  rhythmic  effect  of  a  repe¬ 
tition.  of  slightly  varied  lines.”  1 

The  genesis  of  “  A  Summer  Night  ”  is  easily  divined.  It 
is  a  virtually  literal  transcript  of  a  scene  which  Homer  saw 
in  front  of  his  own  studio  at  Prout’s  Neck.  The  platform  is 
the  only  part  of  the  composition  which  did  not  exist  in  the 
real  scene.  The  girls  were  dancing  on  the  lawn.  As  usual, 
the  artist  painted  exactly  what  he  saw.  The  group  silhouetted 

1  Twelve  Great  Artists,  by  William  Howe  Downes,  Boston:  Little,  Brown  & 
Company,  1900,  pp.  118,  119,  120. 


WORK  OF  THE  EARLY  NINETIES  161 


at  the  right,  on  the  rocks,  was  composed  of  a  number  of 
young  people  belonging  to  the  summer  colony,  and  included 
several  of  the  Homers.  This  picture  was  exhibited  at  the 
Carnegie  Institute,  Pittsburgh,  in  the  spring  of  1899.  For 
several  years  it  was  loaned  to  the  Cumberland  Club  of  Port¬ 
land,  Maine,  where  it  was  excellently  placed.  It  is  now  in  the 
Luxembourg  Gallery,  Paris. 

“  The  Return  from  the  Hunt”  (or  “  Huntsman  and  Dogs”) 
is  an  oil  painting  which  was  finished  in  1891,  from  an  Adi- 
rondacks  motive.  It  was  first  exhibited  in  New  York  in  De¬ 
cember,  1891.  Extremely  uncompromising  in  its  naturalism, 
it  did  not  please  the  critics,  who  thought  it  too  cold  and  un¬ 
sympathetic.  “  Every  tender  quality  of  nature  seems  to  be 
frozen  out  of  it,”  wrote  Alfred  Trumble  in  “The  Collector,” 
“as  if  it  were  painted  on  a  bitter  cold  day,  in  crystallized 
metallic  colors  on  a  chilled  steel  panel.  The  type  of  the 
hunter  who  carries  the  pelt  of  the  deer  over  his  shoulder,  and 
its  front  and  antlers  in  his  hand,  is  low  and  brutal  in  the 
extreme.  He  is  just  the  sort  of  scoundrel,  this  fellow,  who 
hounds  deer  to  death  up  in  the  Adirondacks  for  the  couple 
of  dollars  the  hide  and  horns  bring  in,  and  leaves  the  carcass 
to  feed  the  carrion  birds.  The  best  thing  in  the  picture  is  the 
true  doggishness  of  the  hounds.  One  does  n’t  expect  hounds 
to  have  any  instinct  above  slaughter.  Throughout,  however, 
the  picture  —  albeit  well  composed  and  firmly  drawn  —  is  a 
cold  and  unsympathetic  work,  entirely  unworthy  of  the  artist, 
unless  he  had  made  it  as  the  original  for  a  newspaper  illus¬ 
tration.”  The  picture  was  in  the  Boston  Memorial  Exhibition 
of  1911.  It  belonged  to  Mr.  Edward  Hooper,  from  whose  es¬ 
tate  it  passed  into  the  possession  of  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Ban- 
cel  La  Farge. 

“Mending  Nets”  and  “  On  the  Cliffs,”  two  watercolors,  are 


162 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


of  the  same  year,  1891.  The  former  was  exhibited  at  the 
twenty-fourth  exhibition  of  the  American  Watercolor  Society, 
New  York.  It  was  painted  from  a  study  made  in  Tynemouth, 
and  shows  two  seated  figures  of  fishwives.  “On  the  Cliffs” 
depicts  children  at  play  on  a  bluff  overlooking  the  sea ;  they 
are  plucking  flowers  or  standing  to  look  at  the  ocean  beyond 
them.  This  watercolor  was  acquired  by  Mr.  Thomas  L.  Man- 
son,  Jr.,  New  York,  who  bought  it  for  two  hundred  and 
twenty-five  dollars  at  the  Clarke  sale  in  1899. 

Mr.  Manson  also  bought  at  the  same  time  another  water- 
color  entitled  “Canoeing  in  the  Adirondacks,”  for  which  he 
paid  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars.  This  was  painted 
in  1892.  The  description  of  it  in  the  Clarke  catalogue  runs 
as  follows :  — 

“Two  hunters  are  seated  in  a  canoe,  paddling  quietly 
along  in  the  deep  shadow  made  by  the  wooded  shore.  The 
man  in  the  stern,  in  a  red  shirt  which  makes  a  fine  color  note, 
is  looking  backward,  and  a  trail  of  whitened  water  is  left 
behind.  Some  pines  are  outlined  against  the  sky,  which  is 
of  brilliant  whitish  gray.  The  tones  are  rich,  and  recall  with 
vivid  realism  the  dense  woodland  fastnesses  of  the  wilder¬ 
ness.” 

In  the  two  models  for  the  men  in  the  canoe  are  to  be 
recognized,  probably,  the  same  Keene  Valley  characters 
alluded  to  by  Mr.  Shurtleff,  “Old  Mountain  Philips”  and 
the  “young  man  noted  for  his  size  and  his  red  shirt,”  who 
served  as  models  for  the  figures  in  “The  Two  Guides”  of 
1876. 

Another  oil  painting,  with  the  title  of  “  Coast  in  Winter,” 
painted  in  1892,  is  one  of  the  first  of  the  midwinter  pictures 
of  the  surf  at  Prout’s  Neck.  The  rocks  in  the  foreground 
are  partly  covered  by  snow.  The  sea  is  very  rough,  and  the 


THE  WEST  WIND 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Samuel 
Untermyer,  New  York 


. 


X 

' 

le 


WORK  OF  THE  EARLY  NINETIES  163 


spray  is  flying  high  in  the  air.  The  desolate  character  of  the 
effect,  the  aspect  of  the  gray  sky  frowning  upon  the  per¬ 
turbed  ocean,  and  the  sense  of  chill  and  of  solitude,  are  well- 
nigh  oppressive.  This  canvas,  thirty  by  forty-eight  inches  in 
dimensions,  was  bought  by  Mr.  Clarke,  and  at  the  sale  of  his 
collection,  1899,  it  passed  into  the  possession  of  Mr.  C.  J. 
Blair,  of  Chicago,  Illinois,  who  paid  twenty-six  hundred  and 
twenty-five  dollars  for  it. 

“Hound  and  Hunter”  also  bears  the  date  of  1892.  In  the 
centre  of  this  composition  is  a  boat  in  the  stern  of  which  a 
hunter  lies  at  full  length,  grasping  with  his  right  hand  the 
antlers  of  a  deer  that  is  in  the  water.  In  the  foreground,  at 
the  left,  a  hound  is  swimming  towards  the  boat.  A  shore 
with  dense  autumn  foliage  forms  the  background.  This  work 
has  been  exhibited  frequently,  having  been  shown  in  Chi¬ 
cago,  New  York,  Pittsburgh,  and  Boston.  It  measures  twen¬ 
ty-eight  inches  high  by  forty-seven  and  one  half  inches  wide. 
It  belongs  to  Mr.  Louis  Ettlinger.  In  a  letter  from  the  artist 
to  Mr.  T.  B.  Clarke,  dated  October  25,  1892,  he  speaks  of 
“ Hound  and  Hunter”  as  his  only  new  oil  painting.  “I  can¬ 
not  say  now  what  my  plans  are  for  the  winter,”  he  writes, 
“but  I  think  I  shall  show  in  Boston  my  only  new  oil  color 
with  ten  or  so  watercolors  (all  Adirondacks),  the  oil  to  go  to 
Chicago,  and  the  lot  to  go  to  New  York  after  being  shown 
at  2  Park  street.  I  have  painted  very  few  things  this  sum¬ 
mer,  for  the  reason  that  good  things  are  scarce  and  I  cannot 
put  out  anything  [which  is]  in  my  opinion  bad.  ...  I  think 
I  owe  it  to  you  to  give  you  more  particulars  about  this  oil 
picture.  I  have  had  it  on  hand  over  two  seasons,  and  now  it 
promises  to  be  very  fine.  It  is  a  figure  piece  pure  and  simple, 
and  a  figure  piece  well  carried  out  is  not  a  common  affair. 
It  is  called  ‘  Hound  and  Hunter.’  [Pen  and  ink  sketch  here.] 


164 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


A  man,  deer,  and  dog  on  the  water.  My  plan  is  to  copyright 
it,  have  Harper  publish  it  in  the  ‘  Weekly  ’  to  make  it  known, 
have  Klackner  publish  it  as  a  print,  and  then  exhibit  it  for 
sale,  first  in  Boston  (at  $2000),  with  my  watercolors.”  This 
plan  was  carried  out  only  in  part. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


MILESTONES  ON  THE  ROAD  OF  ART 
1893-1894.  JE tat.  57-58 

Honors  at  the  World’s  Columbian  Exposition — “The  Fox  Hunt”  — 
“  Storm-Beaten  ”  —  “  Below  Zero  ”  —  “  High  Cliff,  Coast  of  Maine  ”  — 
“  Moonlight,  Wood  Island  Light  ”  — Adirondacks  Watercolors. 

AT  the  World’s  Columbian  Exposition,  at  Chicago,  in 
1893,  fifteen  of  Homer’s  oil  paintings  were  exhibited. 
The  list  in  the  official  catalogue  was  as  follows :  — 
Dressing  for  the  Carnival. 

A  Great  Gale. 

Camp  Fire. 

Eight  Bells. 

March  Wind. 

Coast  in  Winter. 

The  Two  Guides. 

(The  above  seven  paintings  were  lent  by  Thomas  B.  Clarke, 
New  York.) 

Sailors  Take  Warning  (Sunset.) 

Hound  and  Hunter. 

Lost  on  the  Grand  Banks. 

The  Fog  Warning. 

Herring  Fishing. 

Coast  in  Winter.  (Lent  by  J.  G.  Johnson,  Philadelphia.) 
Sunlight  on  the  Coast.  (Lent  by  J.  G.  Johnson,  Phila¬ 
delphia.) 

Return  from  the  Hunt.  (Lent  by  Reichard  &  Co.,  New 
York.) 


i66 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


The  painter  visited  the  exposition,  and  while  there  painted 
a  monochrome  picture  in  oil  of  the  famous  fountain  by  Mac- 
monnies  under  the  electric  light.  The  work  shows  the  pair  of 
sea-horses  and  their  driver  with  the  water  playing  about  and 
over  them.  In  the  band  of  light  that  falls  on  the  basin  in  the 
foreground  there  is  a  gondola  with  two  gondoliers  rowing 
and  two  women  passengers.  This  interesting  souvenir  of 
the  memorable  Court  of  Honor  is  owned  by  Mr.  Charles  S. 
Homer,  and  was  first  exhibited  to  the  public  at  the  New  York 
memorial  exhibition  of  1911. 

A  gold  medal  was  conferred  on  the  artist  for  the  picture 
called  “The  Gale”  (or  “A  Great  Gale”).  Singularly  enough, 
this  wras  one  of  the  first  honors  of  the  kind  to  be  given  him. 
He  had  now  arrived  at  the  age  of  fifty-seven.  He  was  in  the 
maturity  of  his  powers.  We  shall  see  him,  from  this  period 
to  the  end,  receiving  in  swift  succession  every  token  of  the 
highest  appreciation,  every  testimony  of  popular  favor,  and 
all  the  honors  that  can  be  bestowed  on  a  successful  painter; 
but  we  shall  never  see  him  in  the  least  degree  intoxicated  by 
his  triumph,  vain  of  his  victories,  or  deviating  by  so  much 
as  a  hair  from  the  course  already  marked  out.  He  was  not 
ungrateful,  but  he  was  sagacious  enough  to  esteem  these 
honors  at  their  true  value.  One  evening,  at  Prout’s  Neck, 
when  he  had  just  received  news  of  some  great  distinction  that 
had  been  conferred  upon  him,  he  happened  to  be  at  the 
Checkley  House,  and,  somewhat  to  his  inarticulate  disgust, 
he  was  being  warmly  congratulated  by  a  group  of  ladies, 
who  were  rather  fulsome  in  their  expressions  of  pleasure,  but 
he  turned  it  all  off  by  saying  to  the  company,  his  elder 
brother  being  present,  “You  must  remember  that  my  brother 
here  is  quite  as  distinguished  in  his  line  of  work  as  I  am 
in  mine.” 


THE  SIGNAL  OF  DISTRESS 
From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Edward  T. 
Stotesbury,  Philadelphia 


t  o  eondoi  ars  owi: 


:  aH5IT8ia  30  .USAOlc:  3HT 

.T  5mwb2L  \q  «<nV«\to>  m  «V  amiwiMiio  a\\\  movi 

.  .  s  •  ■  s§j  l  •  toKeo  of  the 

a mdteaouwS.  ,v ,v«foa$oY6 

,  '  ;. 

f ,  '  >•  :  dcl'-T 


MILESTONES  ON  THE  ROAD  OF  ART  167 


He  realized  that  there  are  other  things  in  the  world  besides 
art.  He  respected  and  honored  men  who  accomplished  valu¬ 
able  work  in  science,  literature,  commerce,  invention.  Mr. 
Baker  said  of  him :  “  I  do  not  think  that  painting  was  any¬ 
thing  more  to  him  than  anything  else.  He  did  not  care  whether 
he  painted  or  not.”  This  seems  as  astonishing  as  it  is  un¬ 
usual  ;  and  one  is  at  first  inclined  to  be  a  little  skeptical ;  but 
that  there  is  truth  in  it  is  proved  by  the  artist’s  own  letters 
late  in  life,  which  I  shall  have  occasion  to  quote  in  their 
proper  place  further  on.  Even  as  early  as  1893,  when  he  was 
replying  to  a  Chicago  picture  dealer’s  invitation  to  hold  an 
exhibition  of  his  works  in  that  city,  he  was  in  the  mood  to 
say,  “  At  present  ...  I  see  no  reason  why  I  should  paint 
any  pictures.”  This  is  the  letter. 

Scarboro,  Me.,  Oct.  23,  1893. 

Messrs.  O’Brien  &  Sons, 

Gentlemen,  —  I  am  in  receipt  of  your  letter  of  October 
the  8th  inviting  me  to  have  an  exhibition  at  your  Galleries. 
In  reply  I  would  say  that  I  am  extremely  obliged  to  you  for 
your  offer,  and  if  I  have  anything  in  the  picture  line  again  I 
will  remember  you. 

At  present  and  for  some  time  past  I  see  no  reason  why  I 
should  paint  any  pictures. 

Yours  respectfully, 

Winslow  Homer. 

P.  S.  I  will  paint  for  money  at  any  time.  Any  subject, 
any  size.  W.  H. 

As  he  gave  no  reason  to  explain  his  feeling  on  this  subject, 
we  are  left  to  conjecture.  It  could  not  have  been  owing  to 
any  real  or  fancied  lack  of  appreciation  and  patronage  on 


1 68 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


the  part  of  the  public  or  of  picture-buyers.  Nor  was  it  because 
of  any  hostile  criticism,  for  at  that  time  there  was  not  any¬ 
thing  of  this  nature  to  disturb  him,  even  were  he  affected  by 
such  things.  For  the  last  seventeen  or  eighteen  years  of  his 
life  we  shall,  from  time  to  time,  find  him  declaring  that  he 
wmuld  paint  no  more,  but  he  never  gave  any  explanation 
of  this  attitude,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  he  did  not  lay  down 
his  brush  and  palette  for  good  until  the  last  year  of  his 
life. 

The  important  picture  of  the  year  1893  was  “The  Fox 
Hunt.”  It  has  been  variously  known  as  the  “Fox  and  Crows” 
and  “Winter.”  The  subject  of  this  wrork  is  very  novel,  and 
requires  a  word  of  explanation  as  to  the  fact  in  natural  his¬ 
tory  of  which  it  is  a  dramatic  illustration.  In  the  depths  of 
winter,  when  for  long  intervals  the  ground  is  covered  with 
snow  in  Maine,  it  has  been  observed  that  a  flock  of  half- 
starved  crows  will  occasionally  have  the  temerity  to  attack 
a  fox,  relying  on  their  advantage  of  numbers,  the  weakened 
condition  of  the  fox,  and  the  deep  snow,  which  makes  it 
peculiarly  difficult  for  the  victim  either  to  defend  himself  or 
to  escape.  This,  then,  is  the  curious  occurrence  that  Homer 
took  for  the  subject  of  his  picture,  which  is  as  original  and 
forcible  as  the  rest  of  his  productions.  In  the  snow  which 
covers  the  foreground,  near  the  shore,  a  weary  and  harassed 
fox  is  running  painfully  along,  in  his  vain  effort  to  find  a 
refuge  from  his  approaching  foes.  Two  savage  crows  already 
hover  nearly  over  him,  ready  to  strike,  and  the  rest  of  the 
hungry  flock  is  seen  coming  rapidly  to  the  spot  from  the 
direction  of  the  shore.  The  canvas  is  large  enough  to  permit 
the  representation  of  a  life-size  fox,  and  the  reddish  color  of 
his  coat  and  brush  in  the  midst  of  the  expanse  of  white 
makes  an  interesting  point  in  the  color  scheme.  The  ocean 


MILESTONES  ON  THE  ROAD  OF  ART  169 


is  visible  in  the  distance,  and  overhead  is  a  dark  gray  win¬ 
try  sky,  in  which  there  are  only  two  small  rifts,  allowing  a 
cold  silvery  light  to  fall  on  the  water  near  the  left  side  of  the 
picture.  The  green  surf  breaks  on  the  rocks  and  throws  up 
a  cloud  of  spray.  There  is  something  uncommonly  impres¬ 
sive  and  solemn  about  this  stern  and  frigid  landscape,  and 
it  seems  a  fit  theatre  for  the  impending  catastrophe.  The 
painting  of  the  drifted  snow  in  the  foreground  is  exceed¬ 
ingly  interesting  in  the  delicate  gradations  of  the  values  on 
the  undulating  surface,  in  the  delicacy  of  its  color,  which  is 
apparently  very  simple,  yet  is  full  of  variety.  The  sky  also 
is  one  that  perhaps  no  other  painter  except  Homer  would 
have  the  courage  to  oppose  to  such  a  foreground,  or,  rather, 
that  few  other  painters  would  be  able  to  put  in  its  right 
place. 

Mr.  Fowler  cites  this  picture  as  an  example  of  the  fine 
sense  of  quantities  in  space  that  characterizes  so  markedly 
much  of  Homer’s  best  work.  “  The  disposition  of  the  force¬ 
ful  spots  in  this  rectangle  is  most  happy,”  he  writes.  “  The 
strong  and  daring  mass  of  black  offered  by  the  crows  in  the 
upper  right-hand  corner,  suggesting  an  even  greater  volume 
to  the  mass  by  the  partly  disappearing  wings  and  the  ap¬ 
proaching  numbers  of  crows  -----  this  black,  modified  and 
broken  by  the  reflected  light  on  the  feathers  and  the  surface 
light  on  the  beaks,  is  further  distributed  by  the  accents  of 
dark  carried  to  the  ears  and  left  forepaw  of  the  fox  with 
fine  judgment  and  effect.  So  much  for  the  strong  and  or¬ 
ganic  notes  of  the  picture.  Nothing  could  show  better  con¬ 
trol  of  these  forcible  accents  than  the  manner  in  which  the 
artist  has  chosen  to  place  them  on  the  canvas  and  then  given 
them  cohesion  by  silhouetting  these  telling  spots  of  black 
against  a  darkened  sky,  and  placing  the  lighter  tonal  value 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


170 

of  the  fox  against  the  snow.  The  space  in  front  of  the  fox 
suggests  much  distance  for  his  apprehensive  flight  —  the 
very  direction  of  his  head  and  ears  unites  these  two  active 
quantities  of  the  scene.”  1 

This  is  one  of  Homer’s  largest  canvases,  measuring  thirty- 
eight  by  sixty-eight  inches.  It  was  bought  by  the  Temple 
fund  in  1894  for  the  permanent  collection  of  the  Pennsyl¬ 
vania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  Philadelphia. 

We  come  now  to  the  year  1894,  a  year  of  marked  activ¬ 
ity  and  fertility  in  Homer’s  life,  the  date  of  four  of  his 
great  paintings  of  the  sea :  “  Storm-Beaten,”  “  Below  Zero,” 
“  High  Cliff,  Coast  of  Maine,”  and  “  Moonlight,  Wood 
Island  Light.”  For  the  first-named  picture  he  found  the  sub¬ 
ject  ready  to  his  hand  on  a  point  of  rocks  at  Prout’s  Neck, 
just  after  a  prolonged  easterly  gale,  when  the  Atlantic  was 
in  its  most  spectacular  mood.  Never  had  he  given  such  a 
free  rein  to  his  brush  in  the  broad,  emphatic,  confident  de¬ 
scription  of  the  ponderous  and  magnificent  onset  of  the  bil¬ 
lows  along  that  exposed,  rock-bound  shore  of  Maine.  The 
overwhelming  force  of  the  great  waves,  falling  with  their 
full  weight  on  the  ledges,  churning  in  foam,  uptossing  foun¬ 
tains  of  silvery  spray,  crashing  and  thundering,  in  a  riotous 
tumult  and  confusion,  seems  almost  to  threaten  the  founda¬ 
tions  of  the  land.  To  describe  it  in  words  would  require  a 
genius  equal  to  that  of  the  painter  himself.  One  cannot 
stand  before  a  picture  like  “  Storm-Beaten  ”  without  being 
mentally  stimulated  and  exalted  :  such  is  the  potency  of  a 
personal  imagination  working  with  natural  fact  for  its  sole 
material.  It  is,  to  use  Mr.  Berenson’s  happy  phrase,  “  life- 
enhancing.”  Reality  is  made  more  real ;  we  are  more  acutely 

1  Scribner's  Magazine,  May,  1903,  “An  Exponent  of  Design  in  Painting,” 
by  Frank  Fowler. 


A  SUMMER  NIGHT 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  Luxembourg  Museum,  Paris 


. 


T-H DIPS'  5I3MMU2  A. 

V  •■■■■■..  . ,  ...  . 


MILESTONES  ON  THE  ROAD  OF  ART  171 


alive  when  brought  into  its  presence.  Our  horizons  expand. 
The  immensity  and  youthfulness  of  our  continent  are  brought 
home  to  our  consciousness.  We  are  uplifted  ;  we  feel  the 
glory  of  life ;  we  take  deeper  breaths ;  we  are  newly  heart¬ 
ened  for  our  work  in  this  best  of  all  worlds. 

“Storm-Beaten”  was  exhibited  at  Doll  &  Richards’s  gal¬ 
lery,  Boston,  in  1894,  and  at  the  fifty-fifth  exhibition  of  the 
Boston  Art  Club  in  1896-1897.  It  was  bought  by  Mr.  Wil¬ 
liam  T.  Evans  of  New  York,  and  in  1896  it  was  awarded  the 
gold  medal  of  honor  at  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the 
Fine  Arts,  Philadelphia.  At  the  sale  of  Mr.  Evans’s  private 
collection,  at  Chickering  Hall,  New  York,  January  31  to  Feb¬ 
ruary  2,  1900,  it  was  sold  to  Mr.  Emerson  McMillin  of  New 
York,  for  four  thousand  dollars.  He  resold  it  in  1911  to  M. 
Knoedler  &  Company  for  ten  thousand  dollars,  and  they  in 
turn  disposed  of  it  to  Mr.  F.  S.  Smithers,  the  present  owner. 
The  alternative  title  of  this  work  is  “  Weather-Beaten.”  The 
canvas  is  signed  at  the  right,  dated  1894,  and  measures  twen- 
ty-eight  by  forty-eight  inches. 

“Below  Zero”  presents  a  truly  Arctic  scene  on  the  coast 
in  the  depths  of  winter.  The  ground  is  snow-covered.  The 
ocean  sends  up  little  breaths  of  steam,  a  common  phenome¬ 
non  during  a  cold  wave,  due  to  the  difference  in  temperature 
between  the  air  and  the  water.  On  the  beach  stand  two  men, 
dressed  in  fur  costumes  like  those  worn  by  the  Eskimos. 
They  hold  snow-shoes  in  their  hands,  and  they  are  peering 
into  the  mist  which  hangs  over  the  water.  All  about  reigns 
that  strange  impression  of  silence,  of  calm,  of  void,  created 
by  an  intensely  cold  day.  It  is  a  picture  to  make  the  specta¬ 
tor  shiver.  The  size  of  the  canvas  is  twenty-eight  by  twenty- 
four  inches.  The  former  owner  of  this  picture,  Mr.  F  P. 
Moore,  resold  it  in  1911  to  M.  Knoedler  &  Company.  It  was 


172 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


loaned  to  the  exhibition  of  American  paintings  held  at  the 
Art  Institute  of  Chicago  in  1910/ 

The  mingling  of  reality  and  mystery,  of  rude  strength  and 
atmospheric  delicacy,  in  “High  Cliff,  Coast  of  Maine,”  is 
unique  in  this  field  of  painting.  There  is  nothing  more  won¬ 
derful  in  the  achievements  of  the  artist  than  the  ease  and 
certainty  with  which  he  has  rendered  this  simple  effect  of 
organic  strength  overlaid  by  an  unspeakable  charm  of  at¬ 
mosphere  and  ennobled  by  the  incessant  ordered  movement, 
the  rhythm  of  wave  and  tide,  ebb  and  flow,  the  poetic  ex¬ 
pression  of  the  eternal  cycle  of  life  in  the  world  of  nature. 
Nor  is  there  anything  more  perfect  in  all  his  oeuvre ,  so  far 
as  the  complete  avoidance  of  commonplace  is  concerned,  in 
all  this  direct,  simple,  virile  setting  forth  of  the  truth  of  every¬ 
day  phenomena.  The  artist  has  effaced  himself.  He  is  wholly 
absorbed  in  his  subject.  Against  this  massive  and  impreg¬ 
nable  bastion  of  flint  and  granite  the  huge  waves  dash  them¬ 
selves  to  atoms.  We  look  up  to  the  three  diminutive  human 
figures  yonder  on  the  summit  of  the  cliff,  and  instinctively 
take  the  measure  of  the  immense  scale  of  the  rocky  structure, 
with  its  successive  buttresses,  based  upon  unseen  foundations 
laid  ages  ago  beneath  our  feet  and  still  resisting  the  encroach¬ 
ments  of  the  ocean,  —  worn  and  seamed,  telling  the  story 
of  the  long  centuries  of  conflicting  forces.  One  might  almost 
call  this  work  the  portrait  of  the  high  cliff,  a  personifica¬ 
tion  of  passive  and  stubborn  resistance,  stonily  confronting 
the  passion  of  the  Atlantic  with  its  inscrutable  ancient  face, 
scarred  and  furrowed  by  time  and  tempest. 

This  work,  together  with  Homer’s  “  Visit  from  the  Old 
Mistress,”  was  bought  by  Mr.  William  T.  Evans,  and  given 
to  the  National  Gallery  of  Art,  Washington.  It  is  on  canvas 
thirty  by  thirty-seven  and  one  half  inches  in  dimensions,  and 


MILESTONES  ON  THE  ROAD  OF  ART  173 

is  signed  and  dated  1894.  It  was  one  of  the  pictures  exhib¬ 
ited  in  the  loan  exhibition  of  Homer’s  works  held  by  the 
Carnegie  Institute,  Pittsburgh,  in  the  spring  of  1908. 

The  elusive  beauty  of  moonlight  on  the  ocean  is  the  mo¬ 
tive  and  inspiration  of  “Moonlight,  Wood  Island  Light,”  as 
it  had  been  of  “A  Summer  Night.”  In  the  former  there  are 
no  figures.  No  one  who  has  lived  by  the  seashore  can  have 
failed  to  treasure  the  memories  of  those  perfect  summer 
nights  when  the  moon  sends  its  beams  athwart  the  wide  field 
of  the  moving  waters  in  a  path  of  molten  silver;  and  the 
fascination  of  watching  this  glorious  spectacle  never  lost  its 
power  over  our  artist.  One  night  in  the  summer  of  1894,  he 
was  sitting  on  a  bench,  smoking,  with  his  nephew,  in  front 
of  the  studio.  It  was  a  beautiful  evening,  with  quite  a  sea 
running,  but  not  much  wind.  Of  a  sudden,  Winslow  Homer 
rose  from  his  seat,  and  said :  “  I ’ve  got  an  idea !  Good  night, 
Arthur  1”  He  almost  ran  into  the  studio,  seized  his  painting 
outfit,  emerged  from  the  house,  and  clambered  down  over 
the  rocks  towards  the  shore.  He  worked  there  uninterrupt¬ 
edly  until  one  o’clock  in  the  morning.  The  picture  called 
“Moonlight,  Wood  Island  Light,”  was  the  result  of  that  im¬ 
pulse  and  four  or  five  hours’  work.  Like  his  other  moonlight 
pictures,  it  was  painted  wholly  in  and  by  the  light  of  the 
moon,  and  never  again  retouched.  The  very  essence  of 
moonlight  is  in  it.  Close  to  the  rocks  the  foaming  water 
gives  back  the  fullest,  brightest  reflections,  in  a  whimsical 
pattern  of  shining  silver.  Beyond  the  reefs  the  illuminated 
track  recedes  in  diminishing  brightness  clear  to  the  horizon. 
In  the  distance,  at  the  right,  a  long,  low  cape,  in  the  south, 
extends  into  the  ocean,  from  Biddeford  Pool,  and  near  the 
tip  of  this  point  is  visible  the  light  which  gives  the  picture  its 
name.  The  moon  is  not  shown,  but  a  gray  ring  indicates  its 


174 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


position  in  the  sky.  The  painting  was  bought  by  Mr.  Thomas 
B.  Clarke,  and  at  the  sale  of  his  collection  in  1899  it  was 
purchased  by  Boussod,  Valadon  &  Company,  for  thirty-six 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars.  It  is  now  in  the  collection  of  Mr. 
George  A.  Hearn.  The  canvas  measures  thirty  by  forty 
inches. 

In  1894  Doll  &  Richards  of  Boston  exhibited  a  group  of 
Homer’s  watercolors  depicting  subjects  taken  at  Prout’s  Neck 
and  in  the  Adirondacks.  One  of  the  Adirondacks  compo¬ 
sitions  represented  a  gigantic  tree,  by  the  stately  trunk  of 
which  stood  a  gray-bearded  guide  or  woodsman,  looking 
lovingly,  almost  reverently,  up  to  the  monster,  as  a  man  who 
understands  and  appreciates  and  converses  with  trees,  and 
who  has  lived  among  them  all  his  life.  Another  Adirondacks 
drawing  described  powerfully  a  perfectly  smooth  lake,  where 
an  old  man  was  fishing  from  a  boat,  and  the  dark  reflections 
of  the  surrounding  woods  and  mountains  slumbered  deep  in 
the  bosom  of  the  still  waters,  so  that  the  boat  and  the  fisher¬ 
man  almost  seemed  to  be  suspended  in  mid-air.  Still  an¬ 
other  Adirondacks  drawing  simply  showed  the  solitary  figure 
of  a  rugged  woodsman  on  the  deforested  summit  of  a  moun¬ 
tain,  his  gaunt  frame  outlined  against  a  sky  full  of  wildly 
scudding  clouds.  In  another  drawing  still  we  were  shown  a 
dark,  swift,  shadowy  mountain  stream,  rushing  down  over 
the  rocks,  in  rapids  which  were  broken  into  strangely  beau¬ 
tiful  hues, — amber,  brown,  green,  and  golden, — and  which 
took  on  the  most  fantastic  forms,  now  gliding,  now  upheaved, 
now  eddying,  swirling,  beckoning,  sinking,  under  the  banks 
crowded  thick  with  tall  forest  trees. 

The  oil  painting  called  by  the  artist  “The  Girl  in  a  Fog,” 
and  more  commonly  known  as  “The  Fisher  Girl,”  was  painted 
in  1894.  In  August,  1904,  Homer  wrote  to  the  owner  of  the 


HOUND  AND  HUNTER 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Louis 
Ettlinger,  New  York 


aaxK'JH  ;G  'Ah  a/.'J-  ai 

•  vwoX  «GiVy>\\o^  t>5's  -w  uo  3:','  •'uv'-,V 

■ 


MILESTONES  ON  THE  ROAD  OF  ART  175 


picture,  Mr.  Burton  Mansfield,  of  New  Haven,  Connecticut, 
that  it  was  painted  about  1894,  and  “was  a  most  careful 
study,  direct  from  nature,  of  the  best  single  figure  that  I 
remember  having  painted.”  He  added  that  the  picture  in¬ 
terested  him  very  much.  In  the  letter  he  drew  for  Mr.  Mans¬ 
field  a  pen-and-ink  sketch  of  the  picture.  It  shows  the  full- 
length  of  a  woman  standing  half-way  up  a  rocky  bank.  Her 
head  is  in  profile  and  her  right  hand  is  raised  to  shield  her 
eyes  as  she  looks  toward  the  sea  at  the  left.  A  net  with  cork 
floats  hangs  over  her  left  shoulder,  and  is  held  by  her  left 
hand.  Through  the  fog  which  hangs  over  the  scene  there  is 
a  glimpse  of  rough  waves. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


THE  PORTABLE  PAINTING-HOUSE 
1895-1896.  iEtat.  59-60 

“  Northeaster”  —  “  Cannon  Rock” —  The  First  Journey  to  the  Province 
of  Quebec  —  “  The  Lookout  —  All ’s  Well  !  ”  —  “  Maine  Coast  ”  —  The 
Wreck  ”  —  “  Watching  the  Breakers  ”  —  Honors  at  Pittsburgh  and  Phila¬ 
delphia —  “  Hauling  in  Anchor  ”  —  Mr.  Turner’s  Reminiscences  of  Homer. 

^OR  the  purpose  of  painting  the  sea  in  cold  or  stormy 
§A  weather,  Homer  had  a  little  portable  painting-house 
built,  and  this  was  set  on  runners,  so  that  it  could  be 
moved  to  any  point  where  he  desired  to  work.  This  little 
building  was  about  eight  by  ten  feet  in  ground  dimensions, 
with  a  door  on  one  side  and  a  large  plate-glass  window  on 
the  other  side.  In  a  northeaster,  when  it  would  be  impos¬ 
sible  to  manage  a  canvas  of  any  considerable  size  out-of- 
doors,  and  when  exposure  would  be  disagreeable  and  un¬ 
comfortable,  he  would  have  the  painting-house  moved  down 
on  the  rocks  of  Eastern  Point,  and,  installing  himself  in  this 
snug  shelter,  with  his  materials,  he  could  place  himself  in  the 
position  that  commanded  his  subject,  and  work  as  long  as 
the  light  and  other  conditions  were  favorable.  Shut  up  in 
this  convenient  shanty,  he  was  secure  from  intrusion,  too, 
and  no  inquisitive  rambler  along  the  shore  could  look  over 
his  shoulder  to  see  what  he  was  painting.  He  could  never 
quite  reconcile  himself  to  the  annoyance  of  having  people 
prying  at  his  canvas  and  watching  his  motions  while  he  was 
painting  in  the  open  air. 

Still  another  advantage  arising  from  the  use  of  the  paint- 


THE  PORTABLE  PAINTING-HOUSE  177 


ing-house  was  the  ability  to  get  down  to  a  level  which  allowed 
the  painter  to  occupy  a  point  of  view  somewhat  lower  than 
would  have  been  at  times  consistent  with  safety  to  his  life 
and  limb.  This  applies  particularly  to  Eastern  Point,  which 
is  very  much  exposed,  and  in  heavy  weather  is  swept  by 
flying  spray.  As  one  stands  on  the  rocks,  even  in  pleasant 
weather,  when  an  off-shore  wind  prevails,  the  crests  of  the 
breakers  frequently  seem  to  rise  higher  than  the  observer’s 
head,  and  to  be  of  a  rather  threatening  character.  Here  sev¬ 
eral  of  Homer’s  most  famous  marine  pieces  were  painted. 

“  Northeaster”  and  “  Cannon  Rock”  were  painted  in  1895. 
The  former  is  one  of  the  most  impressive  of  its  author’s  surf 
subjects,  and  by  some  persons  is  considered  the  best  of  all, 
but  it  is  not  equal  to  “The  Maine  Coast”  and  “On  a  Lee 
Shore,”  which  have  no  rivals.  Still,  “Northeaster”  is  not 
only  a  great  piece  of  work,  it  is  also  one  of  the  most  exciting 
of  his  marines,  the  weight  and  movement  of  the  oncoming 
billow  giving  the  impression  of  an  irresistible  and  over¬ 
whelming  force.  It  will  be  noted  that  the  point  of  view  here 
is  very  low,  bringing  the  horizon  high  in  the  composition, 
and  giving  the  onlooker  the  sense  of  being  below  the  level 
of  the  wave-crest  impending  to  its  fall.  We  are  near  enough 
to  make  out  all  the  shifting  and  seething  patterns  of  the  foam 
which  play  upon  the  immense  breast  of  the  coming  wave  and 
form  an  intricate  momentary  and  exquisite  diaper-work  of 
milk-white  tracery  against  the  blues  and  greens  beneath. 
The  dark  edges  of  the ’ledge  at  the  left,  and  the  spouting 
column  of  spray  beyond  it  close  in  this  simple  and  beautiful 
design.  “Northeaster  ”  belongs  to  the  Metropolitan  Museum 
of  Art,  New  York,  to  which  it  was  given  by  Mr.  George  A. 
Hearn,  in  1910. 

In  an  article  on  the  paintings  by  American  artists  given 


1 78 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


by  George  A.  Hearn  to  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art, 
New  York,  W.  Stanton  Howard,  in  the  “  Bulletin  of  the  Mu¬ 
seum,”  March,  1906,  gives  an  excellent  description  of  the 
composition,  and  adds :  “  The  picture  is  one  of  the  move¬ 
ments  of  the  great  Ocean  Symphony  which  Homer  has 
given  us  in  a  dozen  canvases,  ever  striving  to  set  forth  its 
might,  majesty,  and  infinity  as  he  knows  it.  The  mobility, 
color,  and  force  of  the  vast  miles  of  water  stir  the  imagina¬ 
tion  and  carry  the  mind  back  to  other  impressions  of  the 
beauty  and  power  of  the  sea  and  awaken  the  emotions. 
There  is  an  endless  field  for  speculation  in  the  subtle  agree¬ 
ment  between  color  and  mood,  between  subject  and  emo¬ 
tion,  between  the  subjective  consciousness  and  the  objective 
impression,  which  need  not  be  touched  upon  here.” 

“  Cannon  Rock  ”  is  taken  from  a  higher  view-point,  and 
the  spectator  feels  safer  in  looking  at  it.  I  have  spoken  of 
the  beauty  of  the  cliff  walk  at  Prout’s  Neck,  and  of  the  in¬ 
terest  of  the  frequent  recognition  of  Homer’s  subjects  to  be 
obtained  by  the  stroller  there.  Cannon  Rock  is  one  of  the 
most  easily  recognizable  landmarks.  Looking  down  from 
the  cliff  walk,  one  sees  just  the  outlines  of  dark  rock  against 
the  lighter  values  of  the  water  that  are  shown  in  the  picture. 
Nothing  is  changed,  except  that,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the 
angle  of  the  sunlight  on  the  scene  may  be  different  at  each 
given  hour  of  the  day.  At  the  right  of  the  foreground  one 
notices  the  odd  outlines  of  a  projecting  rock  or  segment  of 
rock  which  bears  a  semblance  of  the  breech  of  a  cannon.  As 
I  stopped  to  look,  I  heard  a  dull,  muffled  boom,  apparently 
coming  from  the  unseen  base  of  the  cliff.  This,  it  was  ex¬ 
plained,  is  the  report  of  the  cannon.  Perhaps  it  is  a  little 
far-fetched.  Such  ideas  are  apt  to  be  so.  In  the  middle  dis¬ 
tance,  I  saw  a  wave  break  repeatedly,  as  is  shown  in  the 


HUNTSMAN  AND  DOGS 
From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  Bancel 
La  Farge 


THE  TWO  GUIDES 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  C.  J. 
Blair,  Chicago 


200(3  a  VIA  MAM2TKUH 
-  '  .  .  •  .  i  ' 

. 


saaiuo  owt  sht 

A  .  ,  '  smifosife  "A-  '  .AsA  5?o  itt  -A  ' 

cyf®AO  ,^Ir\5- 

. 


THE  PORTABLE  PAINTING-HOUSE  179 


painting.  That  is  caused  by  a  sunken  reef  some  little  way 
from  the  shore.  I  do  not  think  the  arrangement  of  lines  and 
masses  in  “  Cannon  Rock  ”  is  so  impressive  and  satisfactory 
as  in  most  of  the  artist’s  off-shore  marine  pieces.  The  effect 
of  light  on  the  water  is  given  with  all  his  customary  success. 
Kenyon  Cox,  in  a  recent  paper,1  alludes  to  this  work  as  fol¬ 
lows  :  — 

“  The  moment  chosen  here  is  that  of  the  recoil  of  the 
broken  wave,  and  if  it  does  not  give  quite  the  overwhelm¬ 
ing  sense  of  weight  that  Homer  can  convey  as  no  other 
painter  has  done  in  his  pictures  of  breaking  waves,  there 
is  yet  a  vast  and  dangerous  bulk  in  the  sullenly  gathering 
water  and  great  truth  of  observation  in  the  steady,  sweeping 
onset  of  the  second  wave,  which  will  be  thundering  about  us 
in  another  moment.” 

“Cannon  Rock”  is  one  of  the  several  examples  of  Homer’s 
work  belonging  to  the  permanent  collection  of  the  Metro¬ 
politan  Museum  of  Art. 

“  Storm-Beaten,”  “  Northeaster,”  and  “  Moonlight,  Wood 
Island  Light,”  were  exhibited  at  the  sixty-fifth  exhibition  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  Philadelphia, 
in  1895. 

The  summer  of  1895  saw  the  Homer  brothers,  Charles 
and  Winslow,  “  hitting  the  trail  ”  through  the  Canadian  wil¬ 
derness,  on  their  way  to  the  log  cabin  of  the  Tourilli  Club, 
in  the  Province  of  Quebec,  far  from  the  haunts  of  men.  In 
this  remote  and  lonely  spot  they  had  happy  days,  hunting, 
fishing,  and  sketching.  They  explored  the  streams,  lakes, 
mountains,  and  forests  of  this  untamed  country,  visited  the 
camp  of  the  Montagnau  Indians,  and  experienced  the  joys 
of  the  discoverer  and  frontiersman.  Winslow  always  carried 
1  Burlington  Magazine,  London,  vol.  xii,  p.  123. 


i8o 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


his  watercolor  box  with  him  in  these  expeditions,  and  on  this 
first  jaunt  to  the  wilds  of  the  Province  of  Quebec  he  made  a 
wonderful  series  of  rapidly  wrought  drawings,  ten  of  which 
he  sent  to  a  watercolor  exhibition  held  by  the  Saint  Botolph 
Club  in  Boston,  in  October  and  November  of  that  year. 
Of  these  ten  drawings,  four  were  in  black-and-white  wash, 
slightly  warmed  with  brown  tones.  The  absolutely  primitive 
wildness  of  the  region,  which  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired 
in  that  respect,  is  pungently  set  forth  in  this  series.  The 
breadth  and  luminosity  of  some  of  these  Canadian  sketches 
has  never  been  surpassed.  There  is  splendid  movement  and 
depth  and  life  in  the  skies ;  the  key  is  forced  to  a  remark¬ 
able  height  of  illumination  ;  on  a  cold  principle  of  coloring, 
the  high  lights  are  the  untouched  pure  white  of  the  paper ; 
yet  every  value  is  held  precisely  where  it  belongs ;  and  in 
consequence  I  think  it  may  be  fairly  said  that  in  the  best 
drawings  of  this  period  the  expression  of  sunlight  is  un¬ 
equaled  by  the  most  brilliant  works  of  the  French  impres¬ 
sionist  landscape  school. 

The  two  scenes  in  the  Montagnau  Indian  camp  were  par¬ 
ticularly  interesting  and  sonorous  in  color.  They  afforded  a 
vivid  glimpse  of  the  everyday  life  of  the  aborigine  dies  lui , 
as  he  and  his  squaw  carry  on  the  cooking,  the  building  of  the 
birch-bark  canoe,  and  all  the  details  of  their  crude  house¬ 
keeping.  But  the  vital  and  memorable  thing  was  the  bright, 
dazzling,  cool  flood  of  northern  sunlight  in  which  the  objects 
were  bathed  and  enveloped.  Another  of  the  sketches  showed 
the  mischievous  glee  gleaming  in  the  small  and  bead-like 
eyes  of  the  impish  black  bear  who  was  amusing  himself 
by  clawing  the  club  canoe  to  tatters.  In  the  drawing  of  the 
“Approach  to  the  Rapids”  the  river  smoothly  and  swiftly 
bore  the  canoe  towards  the  white  waters  swirling  and  foam- 


THE  PORTABLE  PAINTING-HOUSE  181 


ing  and  galloping  in  the  shadows  of  the  dense,  dark  forest. 
Sweet  was  the  repose  of  the  tired  man  in  the  sketch  of  “The 
Guide,”  who  had  thrown  himself  down  for  a  moment’s  well- 
earned  rest  upon  the  rocks  by  the  deep  mountain  lake.  Sav¬ 
age  were  the  lines  of  gnarled  roots  and  weather-beaten  trees 
and  gray  rocks  which  spoke  of  solitude  and  desolation  by 
the  side  of  Lake  St.  John’s.  The  remaining  four  drawings  in 
monochrome  were  of  “Lake  Tourilli,”  “Cape  Diamond”  on 
the  Saguenay  River,  and  “  The  Province  of  Quebec,”  with  a 
sketch  taken  from  St.  John’s  Gate  in  Quebec. 

The  Homer  brothers  were  delighted  with  the  camp  of  the 
Tourilli  Club,  and  returned  there  more  than  once.  It  is  many 
miles  from  the  nearest  human  habitation,  and  the  route  taken 
in  going  to  it  is  a  blazed  trail  through  the  trackless  forest. 
A  “tenderfoot”  who  started  for  the  camp  loitered  behind 
his  guide  until  he  found  himself  alone,  and,  being  unable  to 
follow  the  trail  and  unskilled  in  woodcraft,  he  became  utterly 
lost  and  was  forced  to  spend  the  night  in  the  woods,  sitting 
on  the  ground  with  his  back  to  a  tree.  He  was  found  the 
next  day,  and  arrived  at  the  camp  in  such  a  demoralized 
frame  of  mind,  after  his  agitating  experience,  that  he  could 
not  make  up  his  mind  to  stay  there,  and  beat  a  retreat  for 
Quebec. 

Among  the  oil  paintings  made  in  1896  were  five  excep¬ 
tionally  important  pictures,  namely,  “The  Lookout,  —  All ’s 
Well!”  “The  Maine  Coast”  (sometimes  called  “The  Coast 
of  Maine”),  “Watching  the  Breakers,”  “Sunset,  Saco  Bay, 
the  Coming  Storm,”  and  “The  Wreck.”  Homer  was  infatu¬ 
ated  with  the  beauty  of  the  night  upon  the  sea;  his  great 
success  in  dealing  with  this  motive  in  “A  Summer  Night” 
and  “Moonlight,  Wood  Island  Light”  gave  him  courage 
to  essay  the  same  subject  in  a  new  and  more  difficult  form, 


1 82 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


that  of  a  figure  piece  on  the  deck  of  a  ship  at  sea;  and  he 
undertook  to  make  this  work  a  typical  as  well  as  an  illustra¬ 
tive  page  of  sea  life.  His  preparations  for  painting  it  were 
so  painstaking  as  to  indicate  that  he  had  a  very  definite  idea 
of  what  he  wished  to  accomplish  in  it.  He  went  from  Scar- 
boro  to  Boston,  and  ransacked  the  junk-shops  along  the 
water-front  for  the  purpose  of  finding,  if  possible,  an  old 
ship’s  bell  of  exactly  the  kind  that  he  had  in  mind,  and,  not 
being  able  to  obtain  just  what  he  wanted,  he  went  back 
to  his  Prout’s  Neck  studio  and  modeled  one  in  clay  to  suit 
himself,  after  a  style  that  is  nowadays  rarely  seen.  Having 
done  this,  he  set  the  sculptured  bell  up  out-of-doors,  engaged 
for  his  sailorman  model  one  John  Getchell  of  Scarboro,  and, 
when  the  moonlight  nights  arrived,  he  set  to  work.  The  en¬ 
tire  picture  was  painted  in  the  moonlight,  and  it  was  never 
touched  by  daylight.  For  the  accessories,  including  the  mast, 
ropes,  bulwarks,  etc.,  he  had  to  depend  on  his  old  shipboard 
sketches.  Not  being  quite  satisfied  with  these,  he  went  to 
Boston  again  and  went  aboard  an  ocean  steamship  in  the 
evening  to  study  the  effect  of  light  on  the  actual  objects.  His 
background  of  ocean  was  of  course  always  at  Prout’s  Neck, 
ready  to  his  hand. 

Mr.  William  A.  Coffin,  the  landscape  painter,  wrote  of  this 
picture,  in  the  “Century  Magazine,’’  September,  1899:  — 

“  ‘  The  Lookout  —  All ’s  Well  ’  is  one  of  those  compositions 
in  which  Mr.  Homer  depicts  with  poetic  sensibility,  as  well  as 
with  artistic  strength,  a  picture  of  life  at  sea.  The  mariner 
who  calls  out  the  familiar  ‘All ’s  Well’  is  a  type,  notan  indi¬ 
vidual.  The  ship’s  bell,  with  its  ornamental  metal  fixtures, 
above  his  head,  the  starry  sky,  and,  just  over  the  rail,  the 
white  foam  of  a  wave  breaking  as  it  slides  into  the  place 
where,  a  moment  before,  another  broke,  are  elements  in  the 


THE  FOX  HUNT 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  Philadelphia. 
By  permission.  Copyright  by  Pennsylvania  Academy 
of  the  Fine  A  rts 


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ih  k  ask  \ft 


THE  PORTABLE  PAINTING-HOUSE  183 


composition  so  rightly  disposed  and  so  sensitively  rendered 
as  to  give  the  sentiment  characteristic  of  the  vastness  of  the 
deep  and  the  loneliness  of  the  hour.  It  is  not  worth  while  to 
find  fault  with  the  drawing  of  the  sailor’s  head  and  hand, 
which  might  be  criticized  from  the  academic  point  of  view. 
They  are  not  faultless  in  construction,  but  they  are  suffi¬ 
ciently  right  to  play  their  part  in  the  general  scheme  without 
jarring.  The  effect  of  moonlight  is  admirably  rendered,  and 
the  figure,  so  well  placed  on  the  upright  canvas,  looms  up  in 
the  night  with  the  grave  impressiveness  of  a  storied  bronze. 
The  poetry  of  a  humble  but  free  and  manly  calling  is  put 
before  us  with  simplicity,  directness,  and  a  sincerity  that  is 
as  convincing  in  its  expression  as  it  is  beautiful  in  pictorial 
aspect.  There  is  a  breath  of  great  art  in  this  picture,  and  if 
the  artist  had  produced  nothing  but  ‘The  Lookout’  and 
‘  Eight  Bells,’  these  two  great  works  would  be  sufficient  to 
give  him  a  place  in  the  first  rank  of  the  world’s  painters  of 
the  poetry  of  toil  on  sea  and  land.” 

“  The  Lookout,”  which  is  so  justly  estimated  in  this  criti¬ 
cism,  is  a  work  which  carries  to  its  ultimate  expression  the 
remarkable  series  of  marines  with  figures  which  may  be 
classified  under  the  general  head  of  pictures  of  life  at  sea. 
Beginning  with  the  Tynemouth  watercolors  of  1881  and 
1882,  which  deal  with  shipwrecks  and  rescues,  the  life  of 
fishermen,  fishwives,  and  coastguardsmen,  this  series  was  de¬ 
veloped  in  the  oil  paintings  such  as  “The  Life  Line”  (1884), 
“Lost  on  the  Grand  Banks,”  and  “The  Fog  Warning” 
(1885),  “Undertow”  and  “Eight  Bells”  (1886),  and  “The 
Signal  of  Distress”  (1891);  and  it  culminates  in  the  ponder¬ 
ous,  solemn,  nocturnal  vision  of  this  hardy  old  tar  intoning 
his  pithy  report  of  “  All ’s  well !  ”  Such  a  breath  of  great  art, 
as  Mr.  Coffin  puts  it,  is  all  the  more  impressive  for  the  rude 


184 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


form  in  which  the  conception  is  embodied,  though  it  may 
not,  indeed  cannot,  please  the  fastidious  dilettante  for  whom 
art  is  a  part  of  the  furnishing  of  an  elegant  salon.  Nothing 
that  Homer  has  painted  is  more  intensely  characteristic  of 
him.  I  will  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  no  picture  in  existence 
has  more  of  the  romance  and  the  wonder  of  sea  life.  The 
spirit  of  this  is  reduced  to  its  simplest,  largest  terms.  It 
brings  to  the  thought  and  memory  of  the  observer  all  the 
stirring  tales  of  the  sailor’s  life  and  all  the  picturesque  asso¬ 
ciations  of  ocean  adventure  on  which  the  youth  of  the  sea¬ 
faring  races  have  from  time  immemorial  fed  their  fancy  and 
nourished  their  instinct  for  hero-worship.  It  would  have  been 
so  easy  and  so  inevitable  for  many  painters  to  make  this  ap¬ 
peal  in  some  sort  meretricious  and  theatrical,  and  it  was  so 
evidently  out  of  the  question  for  Homer  to  do  so.  The  able 
seaman  is  a  rough,  uncouth,  simple-minded  and  very  un- 
heroic-looking  creature,  and  in  this  Viking  head  nothing  is 
extenuated.  Our  real  heroes  nowadays  wear  no  fine  raiment, 
are  not  polished  either  in  their  manners  or  their  speech  ;  and 
we  are  too  well  aware  of  it  to  accept  any  false  types.  In 
other  words,  Homer  is  one  of  those  artists  who  has  helped 
us  to  see  things  as  they  are,  and  not  only  that,  but  to  realize 
as  never  before  the  romance,  poetry,  nobility,  and  beauty 
that  belong  to  the  truth  and  are  inseparable  from  it. 

“The  Lookout  —  All’s  Well”  was  one  of  the  thirty-one 
works  by  Homer  which  entered  the  Clarke  collection.  It  is 
forty-two  inches  high  by  thirty  inches  wide  ;  is  signed  at  the 
right,  and  dated  1896.  At  the  sale  of  the  Clarke  collection  in 
1899,  it  was  bought  by  the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston, 
for  thirty-two  hundred  dollars.  It  has  been  reproduced  in 
many  forms.  An  etching  after  the  painting  was  made  by 
Mr.  W.  H.  W.  Bicknell  for  Messrs.  John  A.  Lowell  &  Com- 


THE  PORTABLE  PAINTING-HOUSE  185 


pany  of  Boston.  Homer  wrote  to  Mr.  Clarke,  March  14, 
1897,  regarding  this  picture,  as  follows :  — 


March  14,  1897. 

Dear  Mr.  CLARKE,  — Your  letter  received.  I  have  a  let¬ 
ter  and  telegram  from  Mr.  La  Farge  asking  for  one  or  more 
pictures.  By  good  luck  I  happen  to  have  one  that  I  have  not 
shown,  and  I  have  ordered  it  sent  to  New  York.  The  title  is 
“  The  Lookout.”  [Pen-and-ink  sketch  here.]  A  moonlight, 
at  sea.  You  will  be  interested  in  it,  as  it  will  be  so  unex¬ 
pected  and  strange.  It  was  one  of  the  two  that  I  was  to  send 
to  Pittsburgh,  but  I  concluded  it  would  not  be  understood  by 
any  [one]  but  myself,  and  so  I  only  sent  one,  and  kept  this, 
in  doubt  if  I  would  show  it  anywhere.  But  I  sent  it  recently 
to  Doll  &  Richards  in  Boston  for  them  to  show  it  privately 
to  some  Cunard  people  and  to  find  out  if  it  was  good  for 
anything  and  could  be  understood.  They  report  that  “  they 
greatly  admire  it.”  So  I  send  it  to  La  Farge  for  his  exhi¬ 
bition.  ...  You  mention  the  idea  of  a  group  of  my  works. 
That  is  something  that  must  be  postponed  for  at  least  ten 
years,  and  due  notice  given  me.  I  hope  that  you  are  well. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Winslow  Homer. 

In  “The  Maine  Coast”  we  have  one  of  Homer’s  most 
famous  surf  pictures.  In  the  judgment  of  many  critics  it  is 
his  masterpiece  in  the  line  of  marine  pieces  pure  and  simple ; 
others  will  place  it  second  to  “  On  a  Lee  Shore.”  There  is 
not  much  to  describe  in  it  beyond  what  I  have  already  at¬ 
tempted  to  suggest  in  alluding  to  its  predecessors  in  the 
same  genre.  The  design  is  of  a  rigid  simplicity.  We  are 
looking  seaward  from  the  cliffs  of  Prout’s  Neck  on  a  day  of 


i86 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


storm.  At  our  feet  the  dark  ledges  are  streaming  with  milky 
retreating  foam,  and  just  beyond  them  a  monster  wave  raises 
its  huge  bulk  as  it  comes  shoreward  with  an  exuberant  look 
of  tremendous  power.  Still  further  out  to  sea,  in  the  gray 
mist,  loom  the  oncoming  lines  of  wave  upon  wave,  until  the 
horizon  loses  itself  in  a  far  turmoil  of  dimly  seen  billows. 
“  The  rain-beaten  expanse  of  the  ocean  rises  high  in  the  pic¬ 
ture,  and  meets  a  sky  of  lowering  gray.  The  impression  of 
a  wild,  squally  day  is  admirably  given,  and  the  handling  of 
the  subject,  quite  apart  from  the  technical  requirements,  is 
comprehensive  and  lofty.  As  to  the  painting,  it  is  this,  of 
course,  which  makes  the  picture  such  a  triumph  of  art.  It  is 
virile  and  broad.  The  drawing  is  simple  and  big,  and  the 
color,  while  veracious,  is  exceedingly  distinguished.  The 
truthful  aspect  of  the  work,  —  the  result  of  highly  trained 
artistic  powers  of  observation  —  and  the  effect  of  the  pic¬ 
ture  as  a  whole,  attracting  by  its  pure  pictorial  quality,  are 
equally  remarkable.”  1 

“  It  is  in  his  marines  that  he  seems  to  reach  the  ripest 
maturity  of  his  genius;  and  most  completely,  perhaps,  in 
‘  The  Maine  Coast.’  The  human  import  of  the  ocean  has 
spoken  home  to  him,  at  last,  in  its  least  local  significance. 
This  picture  involves  a  drama ;  but  the  players  are  the  ele¬ 
ments  ;  the  text,  of  universal  language  ;  the  theme,  as  old 
as  time.  With  the  enlargement  of  purpose  has  come  a  cor¬ 
responding  grandeur  of  style ;  they  realize,  as  no  other 
marines  with  which  I  am  acquainted,  the  majesty,  isolation, 
immensity,  ponderous  movement  and  mystery  of  the  ocean, 

boundless,  endless,  and  sublime  — 

The  image  of  Eternity  —  the  throne 
Of  the  Invisible. 

1  William  A.  Coffin,  in  the  Century  Magazine,  September,  1899. 


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THE  PORTABLE  PAINTING-HOUSE  187 


“  They  seem  to  be  the  spontaneous  utterance  of  a  soul  full 
to  overflowing  with  the  magnitude  of  its  thoughts.”  1 

“  The  Maine  Coast”  was  also  bought  by  Mr.  Thomas  B. 
Clarke,  and  when  his  collection  was  sold,  in  1899,  it  was  pur¬ 
chased  by  Mr.  F.  A.  Bell  for  forty-four  hundred  dollars.  Mr. 
Bell  later  sold  it  to  Mr.  George  A.  Hearn  of  New  York.  It 
is  thirty  by  forty-four  inches  in  dimensions,  and  is  signed, 
and  dated  1896. 

Homer  sent  the  picture  entitled  “  The  Wreck”  to  the  In¬ 
ternational  exhibition  held  by  the  Carnegie  Institute,  Pitts¬ 
burgh,  Pennsylvania,  in  the  autumn  of  1896.  On  December  5, 
the  trustees  of  the  Institute  announced  their  decision  as  to 
the  winners  of  the  prizes  and  awards  established  by  Mr. 
Carnegie’s  generosity.  The  first  prize  of  five  thousand  dol¬ 
lars  for  an  American  painting  completed  within  1896  and 
first  shown  at  this  exhibition  was  awarded  to  Homer  for 
“  The  Wreck.”  A  gold  medal  accompanied  the  award,  and 
the  picture,  by  the  terms  of  the  competition,  became  the 
property  of  the  Institute.  The  year  1896  was  the  only  year 
in  which  a  prize  was  offered  under  these  conditions.  In  this 
composition  we  do  not  see  the  ship  which  is  wrecked,  but 
we  get  the  whole  story  by  suggestion  and  implication,  read¬ 
ing  it  in  the  movements  and  expressions  of  the  figures  of 
the  life-saving  crew  hurrying  to  the  beach  with  their  boat 
on  wheels,  in  the  eloquent  silhouettes  of  the  tiny  figures  of 
the  intent  men  and  women  on  the  top  of  yonder  dunes,  re¬ 
lieved  against  the  pitiless  leaden  sky.  The  artist  has  thus 
told  us  everything  by  suggestion,  since  the  calamity  itself  is 
taking  place  beyond  our  ken.  As  we  have  seen,  this  highly 
effective  method  is  invariably  employed  by  Homer  in  his 

1  Charles  H.  Caffin,  American  Masters  of  Painting ,  pp.  79  and  80.  New 
York:  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.,  1906. 


i88 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


story-telling  canvases,  and  it  serves  its  purpose  well.  All  the 
emotional  tension  of  the  situation  is  brought  home  to  the 
observer,  yet  there  is  an  element  of  unsatisfied  curiosity,  an 
element  of  mystery,  left  in  the  mind.  There  is  another  ad¬ 
vantage  in  this  method  of  narrative  art  besides  its  call  upon 
our  imaginations  :  were  the  painter  to  attempt  to  give  us 
the  details  of  what  is  taking  place  out  of  our  sight,  he  would 
handicap  himself  by  creating  two  centres  of  interest.  His 
scheme  thus  possesses  a  negative  as  well  as  a  positive  rea¬ 
son,  both  of  which  are  of  prime  importance. 

Mention  is  made  of  “The  Wreck”  in  three  letters  from 
the  artist  to  Mr.  Clarke,  written  in  October  and  December, 
1896.  The  first  of  these  letters  runs  as  follows :  — 

Oct.  5,  1896. 

Mr.  Thos.  B.  Clarke, 

Dear  Sir,  —  After  all  these  years  I  have  at  last  used  the 
subject  of  that  sketch  that  I  promised  you,  as  being  the  size 
of  and  painted  at  the  same  time  as  the  “  Eight  Bells.”  The 
picture  that  I  have  painted  is  called  “  The  Wreck,”  and  I 
send  it  to  the  Carnegie  Art  Gallery  for  exhibition.  I  did  not 
use  this  sketch  that  I  am  about  to  send  you,  but  used  what 
I  have  guarded  for  years,  that  is,  the  subject  which  your 
sketch  would  suggest.  I  should  like  to  have  you  see  it  (my 
picture)  before  it  is  sent  off.  I  think  on  Wednesday  or  Thurs¬ 
day  you  could  see  it  at  Reichard’s  room.  It  will  be  sent  on 
the  9th  or  10th  to  Budworth  for  shipment  to  Pittsburgh. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Winslow  Homer. 

The  next  letter  has  reference  to  the  sketch. 

Oct.  16,  1896. 

My  dear  Mr.  Clarke,  —  I  send  to-day  by  the  American 
Express  the  long  and  much  talked-of  sketch  that  was  made 


THE  PORTABLE  PAINTING-HOUSE  189 


at  the  time  of  the  “  Eight  Bells.”  The  date  I  was  doubtful 
about  (either  ’85  or  ’86).  I  considered,  on  looking  at  it,  that 
it  was  much  better  left  as  it  is  than  it  would  be  made  into  a 
picture  by  figures  in  the  distance,  as  it  has  a  tone  on  it  now 
that  the  ten  years  have  given  it,  and  it  also  has  the  look  of 
being  made  at  once,  and  is  interesting  as  a  quick  sketch 
from  nature.  I  only  hope  that  you  have  not  expected  any 
more  of  a  picture  than  this  that  you  now  receive.  I  wish  it 
were  better,  but  such  as  it  is  I  now  offer  it  to  you.  I  would 
give  you  this  with  pleasure,  but  I  know  your  ideas  on  that 
point,  so  you  can  send  me,  any  time  in  the  next  ten  years 
(the  time  you  have  so  patiently  waited),  two  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  in  payment  for  this  sketch.  I  am  very  glad  that 
you  like  my  new  picture.  I  am  painting  others  that  I  am 
sure  you  will  like,  but  I  have  very  few  pictures  to  put  out, 
as  I  must  do  as  well,  if  not  better,  than  that  “  Storm-Beaten  ” 
that  has  been  out  so  long.  I  will  let  you  know  when  I  send 
my  Philadelphia  Academy  picture  to  Reichard  for  shipment, 
as  I  wish  you  to  see  it.  It  is  a  very  brilliant  sunset  with 
figures. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Winslow  Homer. 

Mr.  Thomas  B.  Clarke, 

203  West  44th  St.,  New  York  City. 

The  third  of  the  letters  was  written  after  the  award  of  the 
prize  and  the  purchase  of  “  The  Wreck.” 

Scarboro,  Me.,  Dec.  9,  1896. 

My  DEAR  Mr.  Clarke,  —  I  thank  you  for  your  very  kind 
note  of  congratulation  on  my  success.  It  is  certainly  a  most 
tremendous  and  unprecedented  honor  and  distinction  that  I 
have  received  from  Pittsburgh.  Let  us  hope  that  it  is  not 


190 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


too  late  in  my  case  to  be  of  value  to  American  art  in  some¬ 
thing  that  I  may  yet  possibly  do  from  this  encouragement. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Winslow  Homer. 

“Watching  the  Breakers:  A  High  Sea”  is  one  of  the 
painter’s  most  wonderful  winter  marine  pieces.  The  place 
might  well  be  just  in  front  of  the  studio  at  Prout’s  Neck, 
where  a  group  of  three  figures  —  two  men  and  a  woman  — 
makes  a  solid  black  mass  against  the  snow  which  lies  in 
spotless  drifts  this  side  of  the  black  ledges  at  the  top  of  the 
cliff.  A  huge  wave  has  just  fallen  with  its  full  weight  upon 
the  rocks  beneath,  and  a  cloud  of  flying  spray  as  big  as  a 
good-sized  house  is  spouting  skyward — a  spectacle  such  as 
even  those  who  live  the  year  round  on  the  seashore  seldom 
witness.  Nothing  simpler  than  the  masses  and  lines  here 
could  be  devised  or  conceived,  and  yet  the  way  in  which  the 
picture  takes  hold  of  the  mind  testifies  to  its  extraordi¬ 
nary  dramatic  effectiveness.  In  a  black-and-white  version, 
“Watching  the  Breakers”  vies  with  “On  a  Lee  Shore”  and 
“  The  Maine  Coast”  for  sheer  power  and  sense  of  inevitable¬ 
ness. 

As  a  matter  of  course  one  is  utterly  unable  to  express  in 
words  what  this  picture  has  to  tell.  Were  it  describable  it 
would  not  be  the  great  picture  it  is.  One  might  try  to  sug¬ 
gest  what  sort  of  impression  it  makes  on  the  imagination, 
might  try  to  divine  what  qualities  of  temperament  were  in¬ 
volved  in  the  making  of  it,  what  agony  and  ecstasy  were 
felt  as  the  conception  was  taking  shape  in  the  mind  of  the 
maker,  —  for,  after  all,  however  sedulous  the  artist  may  be 
to  hide  himself  in  his  work,  the  chief  interest  in  a  work  of 
art  lies  in  its  revelations  concerning  the  soul  of  the  artist. 


HIGH  CLIFF,  COAST  OF  MAINE 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
National  Gallery ,  Washington,  D.  C.  Gift  of  Mr.  Wil¬ 
liam  T.  Evans. 


' 

3  vie  am  'iO  ;  ?./-.cn  nnuo  hoih 

om\o  «cft$&Uoo  imwu's^  s^V  wsi  mom 

-Vv  H  \o  a\vO  .0  ;CL'|«&<mMitiriT  "y^NuO'  i»tto*rioYi 

i  a .  woH 

. 


THE  PORTABLE  PAINTING-HOUSE  191 


In  the  first  place  we  have  to  do  with  a  man  who,  while  deny¬ 
ing  the  right  of  the  world  to  speculate  as  to  the  most  inter¬ 
esting  and  sacred  things  in  his  life,  reveals  his  nobility  plainly 
in  the  grandeur  of  his  works,  which  are  his  sole  and  sufficient 
confession  of  faith.  We  owe  him  a  debt  of  gratitude  for  his 
interpretations  of  the  austere  beauty  of  the  stern  New  Eng¬ 
land  coast  in  winter,  a  kind  of  beauty  which  he  was  the  first 
to  set  forth  in  all  its  richness  and  simplicity.  I  venture  to 
say  that  there  is  a  vein  of  the  loftiest  imaginative  power  in 
such  crystal  pages  from  Nature’s  book  as  “  Watching  the 
Breakers.”  It  is  akin  to  the  reverential  and  solemn  exalta¬ 
tion  of  spirit  which  inspired  the  words  of  the  Psalmist  of  old 
who  sang  that  “  the  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God,  and 
the  firmament  sheweth  his  handiwork ;  day  unto  day  uttereth 
speech,  and  night  unto  night  sheweth  knowledge.”  The 
might  and  mystery  of  the  sea,  a  tremendous  text,  he  could 
not  thus  feel,  and  in  turn  make  us  feel  it,  without  a  deep 
religious  conviction  of  the  significance  and  moral  order  that 
lie  beneath  its  external  manifestations  of  splendor.  The  artist 
does  not  formulate  these  intuitions  into  a  code  ;  he  may  be 
but  vaguely  aware  of  their  existence ;  but  they  form  the 
spiritual  foundations  upon  which  he  builds. 

“Watching  the  Breakers”  is  twenty-four  and  one  quarter 
inches  high  by  thirty-eight  inches  wide.  It  has  been  exhibited 
in  Boston,  Worcester,  and  New  York.  At  the  sale  of  the  Hoyt 
collection  in  New  York,  in  1905,  it  was  bought  by  Mr.  A.  R. 
Flower  for  twenty-seven  hundred  dollars.  It  is  now  owned 
by  Mrs.  H.  W.  Rogers. 

“Sunset,  Saco  Bay,  the  Coming  Storm  ”  was  first  exhibited 
at  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts  in  1896-1897. 
Homer  served  as  one  of  the  members  of  the  jury  on  paint¬ 
ings  at  this  exhibition,  in  December,  1896.  The  picture  was 


192 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


purchased  for  one  thousand  dollars  by  the  Lotos  Club,  New 
York,  which  maintains  a  fund  for  the  encouragement  of 
American  art.  In  the  foreground  of  the  picture  is  a  mass  of 
dark  rock,  on  which  stand  two  women  with  their  backs  turned 
toward  the  ocean.  The  figures  are  silhouetted  against  the 
sea  and  sky.  The  woman  at  the  right,  standing  on  the  crest 
of  the  rocks,  has  a  fish-net  with  cork  floats  over  her  shoulder. 
The  other  woman  holds  a  lobster  pot.  A  rosy  glow  is  on  the 
water.  The  rim  of  the  setting  sun  shows  above  blue  clouds 
at  the  horizon,  and  near  the  top  of  the  canvas  are  heavy 
clouds  edged  with  light.  Against  the  horizon  there  is  a  small 
sail-boat  at  the  left  and  a  line  of  shore  at  the  right. 

The  gold  medal  of  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  was  awarded 
to  Homer.  This  medal,  founded  in  1893  by  Mr.  John  H. 
Converse,  is  bestowed,  at  the  discretion  of  the  board  of  di¬ 
rectors,  “in  recognition  of  high  achievement  in  their  pro¬ 
fession,  to  American  painters  and  sculptors  who  may  be  ex¬ 
hibitors  at  the  Academy  or  represented  in  the  permanent 
collection,  or  who,  for  eminent  services  in  the  cause  of  art  or 
to  the  Academy,  have  merited  the  distinction.” 

To  the  annual  exhibition  of  American  art  held  by  the  Cin¬ 
cinnati  Art  Museum  in  1896  Homer  sent  a  watercolor  called 
“  Hauling  in  Anchor,”  which  he  had  painted  during  one  of 
his  winter  journeys  to  the  South.  This  subject  he  found  at 
Key  West.  Like  most  of  his  watercolors,  it  is  so  broadly  and 
rapidly  brushed  in  that  it  may  be  called  a  sketch,  but  it  is  a 
truly  beautiful  example  of  his  power  of  rendering  the  essen¬ 
tials  of  an  impression  and  of  giving  an  aspect  of  complete¬ 
ness  to  a  vivid  suggestion.  A  broad-beamed  schooner,  of 
clumsy  lines,  lies  in  the  foreground  of  the  scene,  at  the  left, 
with  her  crew  making  ready  to  get  under  way.  Two  horses 
and  several  pigs  form  a  part  of  her  deck  load.  In  the  dis- 


THE  PORTABLE  PAINTING-HOUSE  193 


tance  at  the  right  is  a  key  with  palm  trees  relieved  against 
the  sky.  The  sunlight  falls  on  the  water  and  the  starboard 
side  of  the  vessel’s  hull  and  on  her  sails,  with  a  fine  effect  of 
luminosity.  This  admirable  drawing  was  bought  by  the  Cin¬ 
cinnati  Museum  Association,  on  the  recommendation  of  the 
advisory  committee,  of  which  Mr.  Frank  Duveneck  was  chair¬ 
man.  “  They  thought  it  a  characteristic  example  of  his  work,” 
Mr.  J.  H.  Gest,  the  director,  wrote  to  me,  “and  quite  unusual 
in  largeness  of  feeling  and  directness  of  expression.”  The 
lovely  blues  and  greens  in  the  water,  characteristic  of  the 
waters  of  the  South,  naturally  lose  much  in  the  reproduction. 

The  tubby  schooner  in  this  drawing  is,  I  have  no  doubt, 
one  of  the  Bahaman  island  boats  which  trade  between  the 
mainland  and  the  sparse  settlements  of  the  archipelago  ;  and 
the  pigs  on  her  deck  are  probably  some  of  the  descendants 
of  a  breed  brought  to  the  Bahamas  long  ago  from  Africa. 
One  day  Homer  brought  several  of  his  Nassau  and  Key 
West  watercolors  to  Doll  &  Richards’s  store  in  Boston  to 
have  them  framed  for  an  exhibition ;  and  the  little  pigs  fig¬ 
ured  in  several  of  the  subjects.  He  told  all  about  the  breed, 
and  expatiated  on  the  unusual  characteristics  of  the  animals, 
making  no  allusion  to  the  qualities  of  the  drawings  ;  and  one 
would  have  thought  that  his  sole  interest  was  for  the  beasts. 

I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  Ross  Turner,  of  Salem,  Massachu¬ 
setts,  for  an  account  of  a  day  spent  with  Homer  at  Prout’s 
Neck  in  the  month  of  August,  about  1896. 

“The  Neck,”  says  Mr.  Turner,  “is  one  of  those  superb 
promontories  that  are  frequently  seen  on  the  Maine  coast,  a 
huge  pile  of  everlasting  gray  rock  rising  up  from  the  sea, 
clothed  with  dark  evergreen  trees,  interspersed  with  granite 
boulders  gray  with  lichens  and  mosses. 

“We  were  ushered  into  a  large  room  on  the  ground  floor. 


194 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


A  very  spacious  fireplace  occupied  nearly  all  of  one  side  of 
this  room,  suggesting  good  cheer  and  warmth  when  cold  and 
windy  wdthout.  We  were  impressed  with  the  complete  ori¬ 
ginality  of  this  home.  Between  the  front  door  and  the  near 
window  was  a  small  table  which  bore  an  assortment  of  good 
things  to  tempt  the  appetite  of  the  transient  visitor ;  Homer 
called  it  his  ‘  free  lunch.’  There  were  sardines,  crackers,  and 
other  lunch-like  commodities,  and  it  was  a  nice  thing  to  learn 
that  our  painter  host  liked  candy  !  One  of  the  guests  at  least 
had  a  sweet  tooth,  and  the  opportunity  to  chew  was  not  lost. 

“  Our  painter  friend  made  this  studio  his  home  for  a  con¬ 
siderable  part  of  each  year,  and  with  a  merry  twinkle  in  his 
eyes  he  related  to  us  some  of  his  adventures  and  experiences 
in  the  summer  time  with  the  many  lady  visitors  who  come  to 
sketch  at  the  Neck.  He  had  been  the  innocent  victim  of  a 
bevy  of  young  lady  students  that  summer,  and  he  drolly  re¬ 
lated  how  they  had  kept  a  constant  and  tireless  watch  upon 
his  every  movement,  a  scouting  party  being  at  all  times  on 
duty,  ready  for  any  emergency.  When  our  host  sallied  forth 
with  his  sketching  kit  and  his  pipe  (to  keep  insects  and  other 
disagreeable  things  at  a  distance),  a  signal  was  at  once  given 
by  the  sentinel  on  duty,  and  a  committee,  duly  prepared 
to  paint  or  to  die,  likewise  started  out,  and  the  painter  was 
tracked,  and  discreetly  but  persistently  kept  in  view,  and  was 
often  obliged  to  beat  a  disorderly  retreat  back  to  the  studio 
—  his  castle  and  his  refuge  in  time  of  danger.  To  have  as¬ 
saulted  this  stronghold  might  have  been  somewhat  hazard¬ 
ous  to  the  enemy ;  he  pointed  to  a  musket  behind  the  door, 
which  was  suggestive,  if  only  as  a  quiet  joke. 

“  Our  painter  host  was  a  true  yachtsman,  as  much  at  home 
on  a  vessel  as  in  his  studio.  He  knew  all  the  ways  of  the 
wind  and  the  wave,  like  an  old  salt.  He  painted  a  boat  with 


THE  FISHER  GIRL 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Burton 
-  Mansfield,  New  Haven,  Connecticut 


JHID  5T3Hgn  3HT 

W'iV'.U'S.  «ov\::-'>UpO  ^  m  ^«$Uau<^  isii  .islvauiv^ 

..: .^aavo'J  ,«vmR  ’.?s%Y-.  .bh'Ay.r  ,.Ar. 


THE  PORTABLE  PAINTING-HOUSE  195 


all  the  keen  knowledge  of  a  skipper,  yet  with  the  supreme 
touch  of  an  artist  .  .  .  The  conversation  led  us  to  speak  of 
a  mutual  friend,  a  fine  yachtsman  and  generous  host,  who 
lived  in  a  bungalow  down  on  the  Cape,  where  Homer  often 
visited  him.  On  one  of  his  many  yachting  trips  Homer 
anchored  one  night  off  Appledore  Island,  and  went  ashore 
for  his  supper.  The  next  morning  a  smart  favorable  breeze 
invited  him  to  a  quick  spin  over  to  Annisquam  for  breakfast 
at  his  friend’s  bungalow,  and  with  all  canvas  spread  a  swift 
run  soon  brought  him  to  his  harbor.  .  .  .  M.  cordially  greeted 
Homer,  assisted  him  to  put  his  small  yacht  out  of  commis¬ 
sion  temporarily,  and  hinted  that  as  soon  as  his  larger  craft 
could  be  made  ready  they  would  go  out  for  a  little  cruise  in 
the  open  sea.  Quite  absorbed  in  making  preparations  for 
this  run,  he  forgot  to  ask  if  his  visitor  had  breakfasted,  and 
the  latter  began  to  feel  the  pangs  of  hunger.  The  sails  were 
unfurled,  stores  were  carried  aboard,  and  in  the  meantime  all 
hints  as  to  breakfast  time  fell  on  unheeding  ears,  until  finally 
Homer  said  frankly  that  he  needed  something  to  eat. 

“  M.,  in  a  half  absent-minded  sort  of  way,  began  to  think 
that  somebody  wanted  something,  and  suggested  that  our 
half-famished  painter  might  take  a  look  in  the  locker,  where 
he  could  probably  find  something  —  peppermint  candy  and 
soda  crackers :  what  a  breakfast  for  a  man  with  a  real  salt- 
sea  appetite  !  ‘Think  of  me,’  said  Homer,  ‘chewing  pepper¬ 
mint  candy  and  crackers  for  breakfast  at  ten  o’clock  in  the 
morning.  Had  n’t  had  a  biscuit  since  supper  the  evening 
before,  and,  as  you  know,  living  in  Maine,  I  had  no  liquid 
ballast  aboard.  I  said  to  M. :  “  Now,  remember  this,  I  do  not 
go  away  from  this  house  until  I  have  breakfasted.  You  may 
get  it,  or  I  will.  Where  is  that  coffee-pot,  quick?”  M.  now 
bestirred  himself,  and  soon  a  delightful  meal  was  ready.’ 


196 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


“  Our  painter’s  studio  had  an  upper  floor  for  all  sorts  of 
things,  among  them  many  pictures,  mostly  watercolor  draw¬ 
ings.  It  was  a  treat  to  look  these  things  over,  and  Homer, 
most  affable  and  obliging,  spared  neither  time  nor  pains  to 
entertain  his  guests.  He  seemed  to  paint  everything  as  a 
vision  of  light  and  color ;  he  could  touch  a  distant  sail  with 
gold,  or  the  deep  shadow  of  a  summer  cloud  as  well.  Some 
of  the  studies  were  deep-toned  effects  in  the  primitive  forests 
of  the  Adirondacks,  painted  simply  and  truly  ;  they  were 
masterly  in  composition  and  with  a  splendid  disregard  for 
all  that  is  conventional  and  commonplace.  The  great  rocks 
at  the  Neck  were  painted  in  all  their  grandeur;  the  ever¬ 
green  trees  and  bushes  were  touched  with  tongues  of  flame ; 
everything  was  saturated  in  local  color  and  light.  He  was  a 
master  in  sea  painting,  as  one  of  his  black-and-white  ink 
wash  drawings  before  me  will  testify ;  a  great  stretch  of  sea 
and  cloud,  the  water  silvery,  the  clouds  broken  by  a  few  vig¬ 
orous  sweeps  of  the  brush.  Over  the  water  are  several  spiral 
swirls  connecting  the  distant  line  of  the  horizon  with  the  im¬ 
mediate  foreground,  or,  if  I  may  say  so,  the  forewater.  A 
tiny  sail  off  in  the  middle  distance  just  lends  a  single  note  of 
life,  and  makes  the  spaces  of  sea  and  air  seem  vast,  almost 
boundless. 

“As  the  mid-day  passed  by,  our  host,  not  unmindful  of  his 
guests’  appetites,  said:  ‘We  will  go  down  to  Father’s  house 
for  dinner,  for  I  feel  that  you  will  be  better  satisfied  there 
than  with  the  best  I  could  offer  you  in  the  studio.’  So  we 
adjourned  to  dinner,  and  enjoyed  a  most  excellent  repast, 
and  our  painter  was  quite  in  his  element,  not  to  speak  of  the 
pleasure  given  to  us.  This  charming  day  at  last  came  to 
an  end,  and  we  strolled  down  the  hillside,  and,  finding  a 
conveyance  ready,  we  bade  our  host  farewell,  hugging  to 


THE  PORTABLE  PAINTING-HOUSE  197 


ourselves  a  delightful  study,  one  of  the  earlier  Gloucester 
subjects,  depicting  some  girls  in  gayly  colored  sunbonnets, 
wading  in  the  shallow  water,  with  just  a  touch  of  a  white  cloud 
beyond,  and  a  deep  rich  shade  of  a  hillside  in  sunlight  across 
the  bay.  At  the  memorial  exhibition  in  the  Museum  of  Fine 
Arts,  Boston,  one  of  the  large  marines  in  oil  suggests  the 
line  in  a  beautiful  poem  :  — 

A  garden  is  a  sea  of  flowers,  and  the  sea  is  a  garden  of  foam. 


CHAPTER  XV 


THE  GREAT  CLIMACTERIC 
1896-1901.  .Etat.  60-65 

Reminiscences  of  Mr.  Bixbee — Winslow  Homer  and  his  Father  —  On  the 
Pittsburgh  Jury  —  “  Flight  of  the  Wild  Geese  ”  —  “  A  Light  on  the  Sea  ”  — 
Sale  of  the  Clarke  Collection  —  Honors  in  Paris  —  “Eastern  Point”  — 
“  On  a  Lee  Shore  ”  —  Letters  —  A  Shipwreck. 

HOMER  passed  the  entire  winter  of  1896-1897  at 
Prout’s  Neck,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  days  from 
time  to  time  in  Boston,  where  his  old  father  was 
then  living.  In  a  letter  from  Mr.  William  J.  Bixbee,  the 
marine  painter,  dated  at  Marblehead,  November  2,  1910,  he 
relates  his  recollections  of  the  father  and  son  at  that  time  :  — 
“  I  think  it  was  in  the  winter  of  1896-97,”  he  writes,  “  I 
lived  at  The  Winthrop,  on  Bowdoin  Street,  Boston,  and  Mr. 
Homer,  Senior,  resided  in  the  same  house,  —  he  and  his 
colored  valet.  Mr.  Homer  was  then  about  ninety  years  of 
age.  He  was  a  very  agreeable  old  gentleman  to  talk  with, 
and  was  fond  of  telling  reminiscences  of  his  long  business 
life  in  Boston.  His  son  Winslow  used  to  come  there  to  see 
his  father  every  two  or  three  weeks,  and  it  was  my  privilege 
to  become  slightly  acquainted  with  Winslow,  who  was  not 
much  inclined  to  ‘  talk  shop.’  But  his  father  never  tired  of 
talking  of  his  son,  and  his  son’s  success.  ‘  But,’  he  said, 
‘  Winslow  was  a  most  unpractical  business  man.’  And  then 
he  told  me  of  a  picture  that  Winslow  sent  to  his  agents  in 
New  York,  and  told  them  to  get  fifteen  hundred  dollars  for 


SALMON  FISHING 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Colonel  Frank 
J.  Hecker,  Detroit 


ADIRONDACKS 

From  the  watercolor  belonging  to  the  Edward  W.  Hooper 
estate,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A.  Lawrence 


OWIHSra  MOMJA8 


■  \o  aui  m-  ■rotaroUjw  s>&i  wovl 

Uo\bG  A. 


SHOACI^OHiaA 

rj^ooB.  AM  b\0'ii\A'v  sAi  <A  v-  l  ymAms  sdA  amvi 

.i.  \SUaAO  'C'S  Sl^yBV^OiiVA  .mtooS.  .sitoto 

;  ■-,  '  :  ,  _:  ;  ','  Alld  1^11 


THE  GREAT  CLIMACTERIC 


199 


the  picture.  Some  time  afterward  Winslow  received  a  letter 
from  the  dealers  telling  him  of  some  people  who  liked  the 
picture  very  much,  and  had  offered  twelve  hundred  dollars 
for  it.  They  (the  dealers)  wished  to  know  if  they  should  sell 
at  that  price.  Winslow  sat  down  and  wrote  a  very  short 
answer,  saying,  ‘  Make  the  price  nineteen  hundred  dollars.’ 
The  old  gentleman  said  that  was  the  most  unbusinesslike 
thing  he  had  ever  heard  of,  and  said  he  was  quite  vexed 
about  it,  and  he  gave  him  quite  a  scolding. 

“  When  Winslow  came  to  Boston  that  winter,  he  did  not 
stay  at  the  Winthrop  with  his  father,  but  used  to  go  to  the 
American  House.  I  asked  Mr.  Homer  why  his  son  did  not 
put  up  at  the  Winthrop.  ‘Well,’  he  said,  ‘Winslow  likes  to 
stay  at  a  house  where  he  can  get  something  to  drink.’ 

“  In  my  slight  acquaintance  with  Winslow  Homer,  I  found 
him  a  rather  pleasant  man  to  talk  with,  but,  as  I  said  before, 
he  avoided  as  much  as  possible  talking  about  himself,  or  his 
work,  or  about,  pictures.  He  did  not  look  professional.  He 
dressed  neatly,  and  had  the  appearance  of  a  well-to-do  busi¬ 
ness  man.  No  affectation. 

“  I  said  to  him  once :  ‘  I  should  think  you  would  like  to 
have  a  studio  during  the  winter  months  in  Boston  or  New 
York.’  He  said  :  ‘  I  had  rather  put  my  pictures  in  the  hands 
of  the  dealers  when  I  get  through  with  them.  I  don’t  want 
a  lot  of  people  nosing  round  my  studio  and  bothering  me. 
I  don’t  want  to  see  them  at  all.  Let  the  dealers  have  all  that 
bother.’ 

“  His  father  thought  it  strange  Winslow  should  want  to 
stay  at  Scarboro  through  the  winters,  alone.  During  the 
summer  months  the  family  was  together,  —  the  old  gentle¬ 
man,  Winslow’s  brothers,  and  Winslow.” 

The  relations  between  the  son  and  the  father  were  alto- 


200 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


gether  ideal,  and  as  the  latter  grew  a  little  childish  in  his  last 
few  years,  Winslow’s  untiring  devotion  was  more  than  ever 
beautiful.  He  was  all  that  a  son  should  be.  The  old  man’s 
pride  in  his  son’s  success  was  touching.  He  could  hardly 
understand  it,  but  it  gave  him  infinite  pleasure.  He  was  a 
strong  temperance  man,  and  he  did  not  approve  of  Winslow’s 
habit  of  taking  what  the  New  England  folk  call  an  “eleven 
o’clocker.”  When  he  was  at  Prout’s  Neck,  Winslow  tried  to 
induce  his  father  to  take  a  little  something  for  his  stomach’s 
sake.  At  eleven  o’clock  he  would  bring  him  a  cocktail,  and 
the  two  regularly  went  through  with  the  following  dialogue  : 

“  Now,  father,  don’t  you  think  you ’d  better  take  this?  It 
will  do  you  good.” 

“  Is  there  any  alcoholic  liquor  in  that,  Winslow  ?  ” 

“  Yes,  father.” 

“  Well,  I  won’t  touch  it,  then.” 

“  Father,  if  you  don’t  take  it,  I  ’ll  drink  it  myself.” 

“  Well,  Winslow,  rather  than  have  you  destroy  the  tissues 
of  your  stomach  by  drinking  this  alcoholic  beverage,  I  ’ll 
drink  it.” 

And  he  did  so. 

By  a  vote  of  the  exhibiting  artists,  Homer  was  elected  a 
member  of  the  jury  on  the  award  of  the  prizes  for  the  exhi¬ 
bition  at  the  Carnegie  Institute,  Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania, 
in  1897  ;  and  in  October  he  proceeded  to  Pittsburgh,  where 
he  met  his  fellow-members  of  the  jury,  —  John  La  Farge, 
Will  H.  Low,  William  M.  Chase,  Frank  W.  Benson,  Edmund 
C.  Tarbell,  Cecilia  Beaux,  Frank  Duveneck,  Edwin  Lord 
Weeks,  and  John  M.  Swan.  The  jury  had  four  full  days  of 
work,  and  became  rather  tired.  Towards  the  end  of  the  task, 
when  evidences  of  weariness  began  to  appear,  Mr.  John  W. 
Beatty,  director  of  fine  arts,  invited  all  the  members  to  go 


THE  GREAT  CLIMACTERIC 


201 


on  a  little  excursion  to  look  over  the  great  steel  works  at 
Homestead.  Everybody  seemed  glad  of  the  diversion,  ex¬ 
cept  Homer,  who  said  :  — 

“  Mr.  Beatty,  I  came  here  to  work,  and  if  we  go  to  Home¬ 
stead  it  will  delay  us,  and  I  want  to  get  home  as  soon  as  I 
can,  for  if  I  am  late  my  father  will  be  anxious  about  me.” 

Mr.  Benson  has  told  me  that  he  found  Homer  much  inter¬ 
ested  in  the  works  of  the  painters  submitted  to  this  jury,  and 
extremely  conscientious  in  the  performance  of  his  duties  as 
a  juryman.  In  conversation,  Mr.  Benson  chanced  to  speak 
of  “The  Lookout  —  All’s  Well,”  and  when  he  praised  it 
warmly,  Homer  appeared  greatly  pleased.  He  then  said  that 
he  had  painted  it  wholly  by  moonlight.  It  turned  out  that  he 
had  seen  several  of  Mr.  Benson’s  pictures,  of  which  he  spoke 
with  cordial  appreciation. 

The  picture  entitled  “  The  Flight  of  the  Wild  Geese”  be¬ 
longs  to  the  year  1897.  This  canvas  exemplifies  the  original¬ 
ity  of  the  artist’s  observation  and  his  extraordinary  instinct 
for  a  fine  composition.  The  file  of  startled  wild  geese  fly¬ 
ing  above  the  sand  dunes,  where  a  pair  of  their  unfortunate 
fellow-fowls  have  just  been  brought  to  earth  by  a  shot,  is 
remarkable  in  its  swift  movement,  and  the  pattern  of  the 
picture  is  extremely  interesting.  The  picture  is  in  the  col¬ 
lection  of  Mrs.  Roland  C.  Lincoln  of  Boston.  It  has  been 
loaned  to  several  exhibitions,  including  that  at  the  Carnegie 
Institute,  Pittsburgh,  in  1908,  and  that  of  the  Worcester  Art 
Museum  in  1910.  It  was  also  in  the  Boston  memorial  exhi¬ 
bition  of  19 1 1. 

A  collection  of  landscapes  by  American  artists,  arranged 
by  Mr.  William  T.  Evans,  at  the  Lotos  Club,  New  York,  in 
1907,  contained  “The  Northeaster”  (1895),  which  occupied 
the  place  of  honor.  “  Storm-Beaten  ”  (1894)  was  exhibited  at 


202 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


the  fifty-fifth  exhibition  of  the  Boston  Art  Club  the  same 
year. 

“A  Light  on  the  Sea,”  painted  in  1897,  was  first  exhibited 
at  the  Pittsburgh  exhibition  in  the  fall  of  that  year,  and  in 
New  York  in  February,  1898,  at  one  of  the  occasional  loan 
exhibitions  held  by  the  Union  League  Club.  It  was  hung  in 
the  place  of  honor  at  the  end  of  the  gallery.  A  robust  fish¬ 
wife  is  standing  in  the  foreground,  with  her  arms  akimbo,  and 
a  net  draped  over  her  right  shoulder.  Beyond  her  figure,  a 
gleam  of  moonlight  strikes  on  an  expanse  of  sea  white  with 
foam.  This  work  did  not  please  all  of  the  critics,  and  the 
figure  in  particular  has  been  adversely  criticised.  One  of  the 
New  York  critics  wrote  :  “The  heavy  impasto,  the  vehement 
rather  than  strong  manner,  and  the  absence  of  any  indication 
of  a  clear  understanding  of  form,  even  in  the  figure,  prevent 
the  picture  from  being  an  unqualified  success.”  The  “Even¬ 
ing  Post”  found  the  work  not  wholly  satisfactory  in  a  tech¬ 
nical  sense,  and  said :  “  The  stolid,  huge  figure  of  a  woman, 
standing  on  a  rocky  shore,  directly  in  front  of  the  moon, 
which  silvers  the  sea,  is  too  definitely  painted  to  give  the  true 
effect  of  the  light,  and  there  is  lack  of  refinement  in  the  treat¬ 
ment  of  the  detail.  But  at  a  distance  from  which  these  things 
are  not  noticeable  the  picture  masses  with  unaffected  and 
powerful  simplicity.  The  figure  and  the  shore,  dark  against 
the  moonlit  sea,  merge  into  a  single  conformation  that  is 
singularly  impressive.”  In  spite  of  these  strictures,  which  I 
give  here  for  what  they  are  worth,  the  work  must  have  found 
some  admirers,  for  it  was  bought  by  the  Corcoran  Gallery  of 
Art,  Washington,  for  its  permanent  collection. 

In  March,  1898,  the  loan  exhibition  at  the  Union  League 
Club  was  entirely  devoted  to  the  paintings  by  two  great 
American  artists,  George  Inness  and  Winslow  Homer.  The 


WATERFALL,  ADIRONDACKS 
From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Charles  L. 
Freer ,  Detroit 


osO  l!  ,•>  V  :■  '  yj\i  ::  v.'A  r.wl 

Si^hQ 

■ 


THE  GREAT  CLIMACTERIC 


203 


exhibition  proved  to  be  one  of  the  artistic  sensations  of  the 
year.  All  the  pictures  were  loaned  by  Mr.  Thomas  B.  Clarke, 
then  the  chairman  of  the  club’s  art  committee.  Twenty-five 
of  Homer’s  works  were  included  in  this  collection,  and  among 
them  were  his  “Rations,”  “The  Bright  Side,”  “The  Two 
Guides,”  “The  Camp  Fire,”  “The  Visit  from  the  Old  Mis¬ 
tress,”  “The  Carnival,”  “The  Life  Line,”  “  Eight  Bells,”  and 
“  The  West  Wind.”  An  amusingly  cautious  estimate  of  these 
works  appeared  in  “  The  Studio,”  which  considered  “  Ra¬ 
tions  ”  and  the  “  Bright  Side  ”  “  almost  equal  to  Eastman 
Johnson  at  his  best,”  and  spoke  of  “The  Life  Line,”  “  Eight 
Bells,”  “  Coast  in  Winter,”  “The  Gale,”  “The  Maine  Coast,” 
and  “The  Lookout  —  All’s  Well”  as  a  series  of  epics  and 
tragedies  of  the  seacoast  which  might  be  deemed  “  almost 
unique  in  the  annals  of  American  art.” 

In  1899  an  exhibition  of  twenty-seven  watercolors  by 
Homer,  illustrating  life  and  scenes  in  the  Province  of  Que¬ 
bec,  was  held  at  the  Carnegie  Institute,  Pittsburgh,  and,  later, 
at  the  gallery  of  Doll  &  Richards,  Boston.  The  collection 
contained  five  or  six  monochrome  drawings  of  the  city  of 
Quebec  and  its  environs,  and  the  rest  of  the  works  depicted 
the  fishing  waters  of  Lake  St.  John  and  the  Saguenay  River. 
The  general  character  of  this  group  of  drawings  may  be  in¬ 
ferred  from  the  titles :  “  Ouananiche  Fishing,”  “  Entering 
the  First  Rapid,”  “  lie  Malin,”  “  Fishing,  Upper  Saguenay,” 
“The  Return  up  the  River,”  “Under  the  Falls,  Grand  Dis¬ 
charge,”  “Young  Ducks,”  “Sunset,  Lake  St.  John,”  “End  of 
the  Portage,”  “Wicked  Island,”  “The  Trip  to  Chicoutimi,” 
“Ouananiche,  Lake  St.  John,”  “Guides  Shooting  Rapids,” 
“Lake  Shore,”  “The  Fishing  Ground,”  “Rapids  below 
Grand  Discharge,”  “  Indian  Camp,”  “  Canoes  in  the  Rapids,” 
“The  Head  Guide,”  “The  Rapids  are  Near,”  “Cape  Dia- 


204 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


mond,”  “Indian  Boy,”  “Indian  Girls,”  “St.  John’s  Gate,” 
“Wolfe’s  Cove,”  “Canadian  Camp,”  and  “Trout  Fishing.” 
Four  of  these  drawings  were  bought  by  the  Museum  of  Fine 
Arts,  Boston. 

The  Boston  correspondent  of  the  “  Art  Interchange  ”  wrote 
of  this  collection  :  “  The  Province  of  Quebec  is  not  an  over¬ 
familiar  ground  to  most  of  us,  either  in  life  or  in  art.  This 
northern  scenery  may  well  be  bleak,  strong,  and  dark,  as  the 
artist  has  painted  it;  to  enjoy  it  in  actual  contact  calls  for 
a  strain  of  the  old  Norseman  spirit.  Such  a  picture  as  the 
‘  Lake  Shore,’  for  instance,  shows  cold  and  gray  in  tone ;  the 
trees  lean  inland,  their  roots  grip  the  outcropping  rocks. 
‘Under  the  Falls,  Grand  Discharge’  shows  a  dark,  formless 
background,  before  which  the  water  breaks  in  a  whirlpool  of 
foam,  while  in  the  foreground  it  has  a  surface  of  mottled  blue. 
The  smooth  surface  of  swift-running  water  is  given  in  many 
of  these  paintings,  a  surface  that  usually  accompanies  an 
almost  resistless  current,  yet  the  fragile  birch  canoes  are  held 
steady  by  their  sturdy  paddlers  among  rocks  that  scatter 
the  water  in  tawny  foam.  Fishing  is  also  well  represented. 
‘The  Fishing  Ground’  is  abundantly  luminous,  but  as  a 
whole  the  effect  is  of  impending  darkness  and  storm.  One 
feels  that  Mr.  Homer’s  broad  style  and  low-toned  color- 
scheme  belong  to  the  work  that  he  set  himself  to  accom¬ 
plish.” 

“  The  Gulf  Stream,”  of  which  I  have  spoken,  was  finished 
in  1899.  This  was  the  year  of  the  sale  of  the  Thomas  B. 
Clarke  collection  in  New  York.  There  were  thirty-one  works 
by  Homer  in  this  collection.  Sixteen  of  them  were  oil  paint¬ 
ings,  and  fifteen  watercolors.  The  oil  paintings  brought  a 
total  of  thirty  thousand  three  hundred  and  thirty  dollars  ;  the 
watercolors  two  thousand  nine  hundred  and  sixty-five  dol- 


THE  GREAT  CLIMACTERIC 


205 


lars ;  making  a  grand  total  for  the  thirty-one  works  of  thirty- 
three  thousand  two  hundred  and  ninety-five  dollars.  The 
greatest  prices  were  obtained  for  “Eight  Bells”  (forty-seven 
hundred  dollars),  “The  Life  Line”  (forty-five  hundred  dol¬ 
lars),  “  Moonlight,  Wood  Island  Light  ”  (thirty-six  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars),  “The  Maine  Coast”  (forty-four  hundred 
dollars),  “The  Coast  in  Winter”  (twenty-six  hundred  and 
twenty-five  dollars),  “  The  Lookout  —  All ’s  Well  ”  (thirty-two 
hundred  dollars),  “The  West  Wind”  (sixteen  hundred  and 
seventy-five  dollars),  and  “The  Gale”  (sixteen  hundred  and 
twenty-five  dollars).  The  oil  paintings,  large  and  small,  real¬ 
ized  an  average  of  a  little  more  than  eighteen  hundred  and 
ninety-five  dollars  each.  This  sale  made  a  distinct  sensation, 
and  from  it  may  be  said  to  date  a  new  standard  of  material 
values  for  first-rate  American  paintings.  The  only  picture  by 
Homer  in  the  Clarke  collection  which  went  directly  from  that 
collection  into  a  public  museum  was  “The  Lookout  —  All ’s 
Well,”  which,  as  we  have  related,  was  acquired  by  the  Mu¬ 
seum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston. 

If  Mr.  Clarke  made  a  substantial  profit  on  the  Homer 
paintings,  it  was  no  more  than  he  deserved  to  make.  Some 
of  them,  we  may  be  certain,  had  doubled  in  price  since  they 
left  the  artist’s  studio.  But  this  was  not  to  be  the  last  of  their 
appreciation  in  value ;  for  several  of  them  have  changed 
hands  since  the  Clarke  sale  at  distinctly  enhanced  prices. 

That  the  artist  was  by  no  means  ungrateful  for  what  Mr. 
Clarke  had  done  for  him  is  shown  by  a  letter  written  as  early 
as  1892,  in  which  he  said :  “  I  never  for  a  moment  have  for¬ 
gotten  you  in  connection  with  what  success  I  have  had  in  art. 
I  am  under  the  greatest  obligations  to  you,  and  will  never 
lose  an  opportunity  of  showing  it.  I  shall  always  value  any 
suggestion  that  you  may  make.”  This  was  in  answer  to  a 


206 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


letter  from  Mr.  Clarke  in  which  he  told  Homer  that  he  was 
planning  to  devote  one  room  in  his  house  to  the  artist’s 
works  and  to  call  it  the  Homer  gallery.  In  the  same  letter 
Mr.  Clarke  also  told  him  of  the  visit  of  the  distinguished 
painter  John  S.  Sargent,  who  came  with  Mrs.  T.  L.  Manson, 
Jr.,  to  see  Mr.  Clarke’s  American  pictures,  and  more  particu¬ 
larly  those  painted  by  Homer.  Homer  was  much  pleased  to 
think  that  Mr.  Clarke  contemplated  keeping  his  pictures  by 
themselves,  and  that  he  was  still  eager  to  acquire  more  of 
them.  “  I  wish  that  he  could  have  known  how  I  loved  his 
oils  and  watercolors,”  said  Mr.  Clarke,  in  telling  me  of  this 
episode. 

Timely  recognition  came  to  Winslow  Homer.  His  was 
not  to  be  one  of  those  pathetic  stories  of  a  life-long  struggle 
against  indifference  and  hostility  which  fill  the  pages  of  the 
histories  of  so  many  painters  of  merit  and  even  of  genius. 
It  is  subject  for  rejoicing  to  reflect  that  Homer’s  last  decade 
of  life  was  not  embittered  by  neglect  and  adversity.  It  was 
especially  gratifying  to  observe  the  spreading  fame  of  the 
great  painter,  because  his  modesty  was  equal  to  his  deserv¬ 
ing.  Reputation  and  reward  did  not  wait  for  him  to  pass 
away  before  underlining  his  name  in  the  category  of  Ameri¬ 
can  immortals.  The  artists,  the  critics,  and  the  collectors  had 
for  long  been  in  accord  as  to  his  merits ;  and  they  were  pro¬ 
gressively  imposing  their  own  estimation  of  him  upon  the 
rest  of  the  world.  The  popular  opinion  as  to  great  works  of 
art  is  sooner  or  later  controlled  by  the  few  who  know. 

To  the  universal  exposition  held  at  Paris  in  1900  Homer 
sent  four  of  his  greatest  oil  paintings,  namely,  “The  Fox 
Hunt,”  “The  Coast  of  Maine,”  “The  Lookout  —  All’s  Well,” 
and  “  A  Summer  Night.”  It  may  interest  my  readers  to  scan 
the  list  in  French,  as  given  in  the  catalogue :  — 


NORTHEASTER 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  New  York 


M5T8A3HT30H 
\\  W  :  '  ■  '  ■  '  ■ 

A'vcTSL  wW.  ,V\k\o  «v-'^u\L  sioiikA'oViSifi 

- 


THE  GREAT  CLIMACTERIC  207 

Homer  (Winslow),  ne  4  Boston,  Mass.,  eleve  de  Frederick 
Rendel.  —  A  Scarboro  (Maine). 

152.  La  Chasse  au  renard. 

153.  Le  C6te  de  Maine. 

154.  Tout  va  bien. 

155.  Nuit  d’ete. 

He  was  awarded  a  gold  medal,  and  the  picture  of  “A 
Summer  Night  ”  was  bought  by  the  French  government 
and  placed  in  the  Luxembourg  Museum,  Paris.  The  grand 
prizes  went  to  Sargent  and  Whistler ;  gold  medals  to  Abbey, 
Alexander,  Cecilia  Beaux,  Brush,  Chase,  Homer,  and  Thayer. 
Homer  served  on  the  national  jury  on  paintings  for  the 
American  section  of  the  exposition,  with  twenty  other  artists 
(E.  H.  Blashfield,  J.  G.  Brown,  W.  M.  Chase,  Frederick  Diel- 
man,  Bolton  Jones,  John  La  Farge,  G.  W.  Maynard,  H.  S. 
Mowbray,  Edward  Simmons,  J.  Alden  Weir,  E.  C.  Tarbell, 
F.  P.  Vinton,  C.  H.  Woodbury,  Cecilia  Beaux,  R.  W.  Von- 
noh,  Frank  Duveneck,  Ralph  Clarkson,  T.  C.  Steele,  and 
E.  H.  Wuerpel). 

The  French  Ministry  of  the  Fine  Arts  assuredly  made  a 
good  selection  when  “A  Summer  Night”  was  acquired  for 
the  Luxembourg.  The  French  critics  of  discernment  had 
from  the  first  shown  their  acumen  in  singling  Homer  out 
for  that  measure  of  approbation  which  they  withheld  from 
Americans  trained  in  their  own  schools.  They  could  per¬ 
ceive  that  in  his  work  were  the  racy  and  racial  qualities  for 
which  they  were  looking  in  vain  in  the  works  of  the  Ameri¬ 
can  painters  elsewhere.  Nothing  gave  Homer  and  his  friends 
more  legitimate  pleasure  and  satisfaction  than  this  well-won 
honor. 

“Eastern  Point”  was  painted  in  1900.  The  size  of  the 


208 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


picture  is  forty-eight  by  thirty  inches,  and  the  owner  is  Mr. 
L.  G.  Bloomingdale  of  New  York.  The  painting  was  ex¬ 
hibited  at  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts  in 
1903.  It  was  made  in  the  little  painting-house  of  which  I 
have  spoken.  Any  one  can  easily  discover,  in  exploring  the 
rocks  in  this  part  of  Prout’s  Neck,  the  precise  place  from 
which  the  subject  was  viewed.  The  ledges  in  the  foreground 
are  drawn  with  perfect  fidelity,  and  the  surf  beyond,  with  two 
fountains  of  wind-driven  spray,  gives  an  accurate  index  of 
the  state  of  the  weather  and  tide. 

Sometimes  the  painter  was  asked  to  suggest  a  subject  that 
he  would  be  willing  to  paint  for  a  certain  customer ;  and  his 
feeling  with  respect  to  this  procedure  is  well  set  forth  in  a 
letter  which  he  wrote  in  September,  1900,  to  a  firm  of  pic¬ 
ture  dealers.  “  I  do  not  care  to  put  out  any  ideas  for  pictures,” 
he  wrote.  “  They  are  too  valuable,  and  can  be  appropriated 
by  any  art  student,  defrauding  me  out  of  a  possible  picture. 
I  will  risk  this  one,  and  I  assure  you  that  I  have  some  fine 
subjects  to  paint.  .  .  .  When  I  paint  anything  that  I  think 
your  customer  would  like,  I  will  submit  it  to  you.  Please 
return  the  enclosed  sketch  at  your  convenience.”  With  this 
he  enclosed  a  small  sketch  of  a  composition  to  which  he 
gave  the  alternative  titles,  “On  the  Banks  —  Hard-a-Port  — 
Fog.” 

The  marine  masterpiece  entitled  “  On  a  Lee  Shore  ”  was 
finished  in  1900,  although  the  picture  itself  bears  no  date. 
It  was  sent  to  a  Chicago  picture  dealer,  who  sold  it  to  Dr. 
F.  W.  Gunsaulus,  president  of  the  Armour  Institute  of  Tech¬ 
nology.  Dr.  Gunsaulus  did  not  keep  the  picture  long,  for  in 
1901  it  was  exhibited  at  the  Rhode  Island  School  of  Design, 
Providence,  and  was  bought  by  that  institution  with  the  Jesse 
Metcalf  Fund,  which  is  a  fund  established  for  the  annual  pur- 


THE  GREAT  CLIMACTERIC 


209 


chase  of  some  work  of  art  by  an  American  painter.  The 
letter  in  which  Homer  introduced  it  to  the  attention  of  the 
Chicago  picture  dealer  is  interesting  as  showing  that  he  was 
naively  conscious  of  having  produced  one  of  his  very  best 
things. 

Scarboro,  Me.,  Oct.  19th,  1900. 

Messrs.  M.  O’Brien  &  Son, 

GENTLEMEN,  —  I  have  a  very  excellent  painting,  “  On  a 
Lee  Shore  ”  [here  he  gives  a  very  slight  pen-and-ink  sketch 
of  the  subject],  39x39.  The  price  is  (with  the  frame)  $2000, 
net.  I  will  send  it  to  you  if  you  desire  to  see  it.  Good  things 
are  scarce.  Frame  not  ordered  yet,  but  I  can  send  it  by  the 
time  McKinley  is  elected. 

Yours  respectfully, 

Winslow  Homer. 

“On  a  Lee  Shore”  is  another  wonderful  representation  of 
the  Atlantic  Ocean  in  its  stormy  mood  as  seen  from  the  shore 
at  Prout’s  Neck.  There  are  no  figures.  No  words  are  ca¬ 
pable  of  doing  justice  to  the  majestic  sense  of  elemental 
power,  the  irresistible  onrush,  the  splendor  of  untamable 
forces,  that  make  of  this  marine  piece  one  of  the  most  unfor- 
getable  and  impressive  visions  of  the  sea  ever  placed  upon 
canvas.  It  is  a  page  of  transcendent  beauty  and  overwhelm¬ 
ing  might.  In  it  abides  the  high  and  solemn  poetry  of  the 
vasty  deep.  The  composition  is  singularly  strong  and  novel. 
The  commotion  and  turmoil  of  the  surf  in  the  foreground  is 
a  shade  beyond  anything  in  the  history  of  marine  painting, 
and  a  touch  of  human  interest  is  added  by  the  little  schooner 
in  the  offing  which  is  making  a  brave  fight  to  keep  away 
from  the  dangerous  coast.  The  passion  for  truth  which  had 
been  the  main  guiding  principle  of  the  artist’s  whole  life  here 


210 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


found  its  greatest  culmination  and  its  most  perfect  form  of 
expression.  He  had  not  steeped  himself  in  nature  in  vain. 

Finding  that  a  considerable  demand  for  his  pictures  ex¬ 
isted  in  Chicago,  Homer  presently  undertook  to  paint  a 
marine  piece  as  a  special  commission  for  Messrs.  M.  O’Brien 
&  Son,  as  may  be  inferred  from  the  following  letter :  — 

Dec.  20th,  1900. 

M.  O’Brien  &  Son, 

Gentlemen,  —  I  am  extremely  obliged  to  you  for  your 
kind  letter,  and  the  picture  that  you  refer  to  I  promise  to  send 
to  you  when  finished. 

I  will  look  upon  it  in  future  as  your  particular  picture. 

I  do  not  think  I  can  finish  it  before  I  have  a  crack  at  it 
out  of  doors  in  the  spring.  I  do  not  like  to  rely  on  my  study 
that  I  have  used  up  to  date. 

But  here  is  something  that  I  can  do.  I  shall  have  in  about 
three  wreeks’  time  as  many  as  six  pictures  all  framed  and  on 
sale  and  exhibition.  I  will  ship  some  of  them  to  you,  as  the 
present  holders  should  get  sick  of  them  after  two  or  three 
weeks’  trial  of  sales. 

I  show  three  at  the  Union  League  Club  on  Jan.  10th. 

I  will  let  you  have  something  this  winter.  I  will  notify  you 
when  I  leave  here. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Winslow  Homer. 

It  was  in  1901  or  1902  that  the  five-masted  schooner 
“Washington  B.  Thomas”  was  wrecked  on  Stratton  Island, 
about  a  mile  and  a  quarter  off  Prout’s  Neck.  There  was  a 
fog  at  the  time  she  went  ashore,  but  the  sea  was  compara¬ 
tively  smooth.  Homer  saw  her  masts  emerging  from  the  fog 
bank,  and  hastily  sent  his  man-servant  up  to  the  telegraph 


THE  GREAT  CLIMACTERIC 


2 1 1 


office  to  wire  to  Portland  for  assistance.  Having  then  done 
his  duty  as  a  humanitarian,  he  ran  into  the  studio,  seized  a 
large  piece  of  academy-board  and  his  box  of  watercolors,  and, 
securing  a  boat,  had  himself  taken,  out  to  the  island  to  paint 
the  wreck.  He  did  not  quite  finish  the  watercolor,  which  is 
in  the  possession  of  Charles  S.  Homer,  and  shows  the  crew 
on  the  deck.  Tugs  arrived  from  Portland,  and  the  men  of 
the  crew  were  taken  off,  while  he  was  still  working  on  the 
drawing.  Later  the  masts  went  by  the  board,  and  the  ves¬ 
sel’s  hull  was  broken  in  two.  The  weather-worn  bitts  in 
Homer’s  front  door-yard  and  other  fragments  of  the  schooner 
are  still  preserved. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


THE  O’B.  PICTURE 


1901-1903.  JEt&t.  65-67 


The  Process  of  Making  the  “Early  Morning  after  Storm  at  Sea”  —  A 
Peep  behind  the  Scenes  —  A  Lesson  in  Etiquette  —  The  Temple  Gold  Medal 
—  Off  for  Key  West. 


GOLD  medal  for  watercolors  was  awarded  to  Homer 


by  the  fine  arts  jury  of  the  Pan-American  Exposition, 


A  Buffalo,  New  York,  in  1901.  His  oil  painting  entitled 
“Fog”  (probably  the  picture  referred  to  by  him  in  his  letter 
of  September,  1900,  quoted  in  the  foregoing  chapter),  was 
exhibited  in  the  sixty-third  exhibition  of  the  Boston  Art 
Club.  He  again  served  on  the  jury  for  the  international  ex¬ 
hibition  of  that  year  at  the  Carnegie  Institute,  Pittsburgh. 
The  other  members  of  the  jury  were  John  La  Farge,  Robert 
W.  Vonnoh,  Thomas  Eakins,  Frank  W.  Benson,  F.  W.  Freer, 
JohnW.  Alexander,  R.  W.  Allan  and  Aman-Jean. 

The  Copley  Society  of  Boston,  which  had  been  planning 
to  hold  a  loan  exhibition  of  Whistler’s  works,  was  met  with 
a  refusal  of  cooperation  on  the  part  of  the  painter,  and  the 
directors  thereupon  began  looking  about  with  a  view  to 
learning  what  might  be  done  in  other  directions.  Various 
suggestions  were  made,  such  as  an  exhibition  of  Gilbert 
Stuart’s  portraits,  a  loan  exhibition  of  American  landscapes, 
and  a  Picturesque  Boston  show ;  and  I  ventured  to  suggest 
an  exhibition  of  Winslow  Homer’s  works.  I  wrote  in  the 
“Transcript” :  — 


CANNON  ROCK 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  New  York 


,  \o  \r.'  •  l;-  >i\-.  ■  ' 


THE  O’B.  PICTURE 


213 


“  This  painter,  a  native  of  Boston,  is  sixty-five  years  old, 
and  his  career,  from  the  time  he  began  to  paint,  just  before 
the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  up  to  the  present  day,  covers 
nearly  a  half-century  of  professional  activity  and  incessant 
productiveness.  The  number  and  importance  of  his  oil  paint¬ 
ings  and  watercolors  are  beyond  precise  computation,  but  it 
is  certain  that  the  sum  total  of  his  productions  would  mount 
well  up  into  the  hundreds.  There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to 
the  existence  of  ample  material  for  a  great  collection.  The 
occasional  small  exhibitions  of  his  pictures  in  Boston  from 
time  to  time  during  the  last  thirty  years  have  given  but  a 
fragmentary  and  inadequate  measure  of  his  genius.  A  repre¬ 
sentative  collection  of  his  pictures,  including  his  most  typical 
oil  paintings,  and  a  hundred  or  more  well-chosen  examples 
of  his  watercolors,  would  be  a  veritable  revelation,  and  would 
constitute  an  art  event  of  national  importance.  .  .  .  That 
a  representative  exhibition  of  Winslow  Homer’s  works  has 
never  been  held  is  a  strange  anomaly.  There  is  no  good 
reason  for  waiting  until  he  is  dead  to  do  him  this  honor.” 

No  action  was  taken  on  this  matter. 

“The  Gulf  Stream,”  painted  in  1899,  was  exhibited  at  the 
international  exhibition  of  art  at  Venice  in  1901. 

Writing  to  Messrs.  M.  O’Brien  &  Son,  of  Chicago,  under 
date  of  Dec.  3,  1901,  Homer  read  a  lesson  in  etiquette  to  a 
photographer  who  had  had  the  presumption  to  place  his 
name  in  a  place  to  which  he  had  no  right. 

j'j 

Scarboro,  Me.,  Dec.  3,  1901. 

M.  O’Brien  &  Son, 

GENTLEMEN,  —  My  last  letter  referred  to  three  photo¬ 
graphs  that  were  sent  to  me  by  the  owner  to  be  signed  (“  in 
very  black  ink,”  etc.). 


214 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


Anything  written  or  printed  under  a  print  or  picture  takes 
the  attention  from  it,  and  if  it  is  very  black  or  white  in  any 
marked  degree  will  utterly  destroy  its  beauty. 

When  I  received  these  photographs  I  found  much  to  my 
disapproval  that  a  photographer  had  put  his  name  and  im¬ 
print  immediately  under  the  right-hand  side  of  the  print  (the 
place  for  the  artist' s  signature ),  in  a  most  pronounced  man¬ 
ner.  [Pen-and-ink  sketch  here.] 

I  have  forgotten  his  name,  but  he  is  not  the  man  who  took 
the  negative. 

The  place  for  the  man’s  name,  if  he  has  any  right  to  show 
it  on  an  unpublished  print,  is  here :  [Pen-and-ink  sketch 
showing  the  name  at  the  lower  right-hand  corner  of  the 
mount.] 

That  incident  is  closed. 

It  is  about  time  that  I  received  my  picture  the  “  Gulf 
Stream  ”  back  from  Venice,  and  the  beautiful  frame  on  it 
will  go  on  the  O’B.  Partic’  picture  directly  I  can  get  hold  of 
it  and  finish  the  picture. 

Yours  respectfully  and  very  truly, 

Winslow  Homer. 

At  the  bottom  of  the  last  page  of  this  letter,  underneath 
the  signature,  was  a  hasty  sketch  of  a  lighted  lamp,  with  the 
words,  “6.30  A.  M.  Dec.  3.” 

The  further  correspondence  with  the  Messrs.  O’Brien, 
chiefly  in  regard  to  the  painting  which  he  had  promised  to 
make  especially  for  them,  extended  through  the  year  1902, 
and  gives  an  interesting  glimpse  of  the  story  of  the  making 
of  the  picture.  The  cause  of  the  delay  in  completing  this 
painting,  which  was  entitled  “  Early  Morning  After  Storm 
at  Sea,”  and  which  the  painter  called  the  best  picture  of  the 


THE  O’B.  PICTURE 


215 


sea  that  he  had  ever  made,  will  appear  in  the  course  of  the 
correspondence. 

Scarboro,  Maine,  March  15,  1902. 

M.  O’Brien  &  Son, 

Gentlemen,  —  I  have  ordered  M.  Knoedler  &  Co.  to 
send  to  you  the  two  oil  paintings,  “  The  Gulf  Stream  ”  and 
“  High  Cliff,”  —  the  one  just  home  from  Venice,  the  other 
from  Pittsburg. 

You  appear  to  expect  three  pictures.  These  two  are  the 
only  ones.  I  mentioned  that  the  frame  on  the  large  picture 
would  fit  the  “O’Brien”  —  but  the  O’B.  is  not  finished.  It 
will  please  you  to  know  that,  after  waiting  a  full  year,  look¬ 
ing  out  every  day  for  it  (when  I  have  been  here),  on  the 
24th  of  Feb’y,  my  birthday,  I  got  the  light  and  the  sea  that 
I  wanted ;  but  as  it  was  very  cold  I  had  to  paint  out  of  my 
window,  and  I  was  a  little  too  far  away,  —  and  although 
making  a  beautiful  thing  —  [here  is  inserted  a  rude  sketch 
of  a  trumpet,  marked  “own  trumpet”]  — it  is  not  good 
enough  yet,  and  I  must  have  another  painting  from  nature 
on  it. 

The  net  price  to  me  on  “  High  Cliff”  is  $2000  (two  thou¬ 
sand  dollars). 

The  net  price  to  me  on  “  The  Gulf  Stream  ”  is  $3000  (three 
thousand  dollars). 

Yours  truly, 

Winslow  Homer. 

March  30,  1902. 

M.  O’Brien  &  Son, 

Gentlemen,  —  I  am  in  receipt  of  your  letter.  In  reply  I 
will  say  that  I  think  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  O’B.  picture 
will  be  the  last  thing  of  importance  that  I  shall  paint.  The 


216 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


present  “High  Cliff”  that  you  have  is  the  best  of  the  two 
or  three  oil  paintings  that  I  now  own.  I  have  many  water- 
colors, —“Two  Winters  in  the  West  Indies,”  —  as  good 
work,  with  the  exception  of  one  or  two  etchings,  as  I  ever 
did. 

With  the  duckets  that  I  now  have  safe,  I  think  I  will  retire 
at  66  years  of  age,  praise  God  in  good  health. 

I  take  note  of  your  flattering  request  for  photograph  of 
myself.  I  think  I  may  have  one  made,  and  I  will  send  it  to 
you.  Yours  very  truly, 

Winslow  Homer. 

Scarboro,  Me.,  Sept.  27,  1902. 

Messrs.  M.  O’Brien  &  Son, 

Gentlemen,  —  I  find  on  looking  up  my  drawings,  that 
I  have  not  seen  for  fifteen  years,  that  I  have  only  twelve. 
These  I  have  sent  to  you  to-day  by  the  American  Express. 

Please  handle  them  very  carefully  until  they  are  framed 
with  a  narrow  half-inch  black  wood  frame  and  in  the  same 
mats  in  which  they  are ;  in  fact,  open  them  once,  and  take 
the  measure,  and  then  put  them  away  until  in  the  frames, 
and  after  that  show  them  together  as  you  see  fit. 

[They  should  be]  sold  to  some  Western  museum. 

As  quick  sketches  from  nature  (untouched)  —  you  cannot 
beat  them. 

[Here  a  pen-and-ink  sketch  of  a  man  blowing  his  own 
trumpet  vigorously.] 

I  will  take  $400  net  for  the  lot. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Winslow  Homer. 

P.  S.  Will  you  please  acknowledge  receipt  of  these  draw¬ 
ings  when  you  receive  them  ? 


SHOOTING  THE  RAPIDS 
From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  J.  J.  Storrow, 
Boston.  Photograph  by  Chester  A .  Lawrence 


THE  PORTAGE 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Desmond 
FitzGerald ,  Brookline,  Massachusetts.  Photograph  by 
Chester  A .  Lawrence 


. 


THE  O’ B.  PICTURE  217 

Why  do  you  not  sell  that  “ High  Cliff”  picture?  I  cannot 
do  better  than  that.  Why  should  I  paint  ? 

Scarboro,  Me.,  Oct.  29,  1902. 

M.  O’Brien  &  Son, 

Gentlemen,  —  When  you  receive  the  two  paintings  from 
Des  Moines  please  let  me  know,  as  I  wish  to  place  them  in 
some  other  locality  in  order  that  I  may  make  room  for  “  the 
O’Brien  picture.”  This  one  will  be  quite  enough  to  show, 
and  the  people  who  are  in  the  clean-up  of  October  corn  may 
be  able  to  buy  it,  but  no  others,  as  the  price  will  be  too  high. 
This  is  the  only  picture  that  I  have  been  interested  in  for 
the  past  year,  and  as  I  have  kept  you  informed  about  it,  and 
promised  it  to  you  to  manage,  I  will  now  say  that  the  long- 
looked-for  day  arrived,  and  from  6  to  8  o’clock  A.  M.  I 
painted  from  nature  on  this  “O’B.,”  finishing  it,  —  mak¬ 
ing  the  fourth  painting  on  this  canvas  of  two  hours  each. 

This  is  the  best  picture  of  the  sea  that  I  have  painted. 

The  price  that  you  will  charge  is  five  thousand  dollars  — 
$5000.  The  price  net  to  me  will  be  $4000. 

This  may  be  the  last  as  well  as  the  best  picture. 

I  have  rents  enough  to  keep  me  out  of  the  poorhouse. 

Now  all  you  have  to  do  in  reply  to  this  is  to  notify  me 
when  you  get  the  two  pictures  back  from  Des  Moines,  and 
I  will  then  tell  you  what  to  do  with  them,  and  send  the 
“  O’B.”  picture. 

Yours  respectfully, 

Winslow  Homer. 

P.  S.  I  found  that  I  had  very  few  drawings,  but  they  will 
go  to  you  to-morrow.  They  have  been  ready  for  some  time. 

W.  Homer. 


2 18 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


Nov.  6,  1902. 

M.  O'Brien  &  Son, 

Gentlemen,  —  I  am  in  receipt  of  your  favor  of  Nov.  3rd. 
Please  take  out  of  its  frame  “  The  Gulf  Stream  ”  ;  pack  it  in 
a  strong  case,  not  more  than  three  inches  deep,  with  a  cover 
put  on  with  screws.  Ship  it  to  me  at  [Rubber  stamp  giving 
his  name  and  address  here.] 

Directly  I  receive  it  I  will  put  into  the  case  the  O’B.  Gem, 
and  ship  it  to  you. 

In  the  meantime  you  will  please  put  the  frame  in  good 
order. 

The  two  pictures  are  the  same  size. 

If  I  find  there  is  any  difference  in  the  size  of  the  two  can¬ 
vases  I  will  telegraph  you,  and  have  the  frame  whittled  to 
suit,  so  there  will  be  no  delay  in  putting  the  canvas  in  the 
frame,  as  it  is  safer  there. 

When  I  send  the  picture  I  will  give  you  the  few  wishes 
I  have  in  the  matter  of  the  exhibition.  It  will  only  concern 
its  protection  from  being  used  by  others  before  it  is  widely 
shown. 

I  wish  it  sent  to  the  Union  League  Club,  New  York,  under 
your  protection,  for  the  loan  exhibition  of  American  artists. 
I  will  get  an  invitation  for  that  purpose. 

Yours  truly, 

Winslow  Homer. 


Scarboro,  Me.,  Nov.  14,  1902. 

M.  O’Brien  &  Son, 

Gentlemen,  —  The  O’B.  leaves  here  by  the  American 
Express  at  3  P.  M. 

If  it  is  damp  when  you  receive  [it]  and  the  canvas  wob¬ 
bles,  do  not  key  it  up,  as  the  keys  are  glued  in  to  the 


THE  O’B.  PICTURE  219 

stretcher,  and  everything  is  in  perfect  order.  Just  put  it  in  a 
warm  room. 

There  was  a  sleet  storm  yesterday,  but  beautiful  to-day, 
so  I  start  O’B.,  and  glad  to  get  it  out  of  my  sight  before  I 
finish  it  too  highly  and  spoil  it. 

I  hope  the  original  member  of  your  firm  is  still  alive,  after 
all  these  tedious  years  of  waiting,  and  that  he  will  be  on 
hand  to  greet  the  O’B. 

Yours  truly, 

Winslow  Homer. 

This  series  of  letters  gives  a  peep  behind  the  scenes,  as  it 
were,  affording  a  glimpse  of  the  processes  and  difficulties 
involved  in  the  making  of  a  marine  picture.  It  is  an  illus¬ 
tration  of  the  artistic  conscientiousness  of  the  painter,  of  his 
persistency,  and  the  long-continued  absorption  of  his  whole 
mind  on  the  one  purpose  before  him.  “  Early  Morning  after 
Storm  at  Sea  ”  was  exhibited  at  the  Carnegie  Institute,  Pitts¬ 
burgh,  in  1903.  It  has  a  high  horizon  line,  indicating  that 
the  painter’s  view-point  was  close  to  the  water,  and  there  is 
a  grand  wave  just  breaking  on  the  rocks  close  at  hand.  The 
clouds  in  the  east  are  breaking  and  the  surface  of  the  sea  is 
all  ablaze  with  the  light  of  the  sun,  which  has  just  emerged 
after  the  storm.  The  painting  is  now  in  the  collection  of  Mr. 
W.  K.  Bixby  of  St.  Louis. 

Another  gratifying  official  honor  was  bestowed  on  Homer 
in  1902.  This  came  to  him  from  the  Pennsylvania  Academy 
of  the  Fine  Arts,  Philadelphia,  the  oldest  art  institution  in 
the  country,  where  the  Temple  gold  medal  was  awarded  to 
him  for  his  painting  entitled  “A  Northeaster,”  which,  as 
well  as  that  other  masterpiece  from  his  hand,  entitled  “  The 
Maine  Coast,”  then  belonged  to  Mr.  George  A.  Hearn  of 


220 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


New  York.  The  Temple  Trust  Fund,  created  by  the  late 
Joseph  E.  Temple,  yields  an  annual  income  of  eighteen 
hundred  dollars  for  the  purchase  of  works  of  art  by  Ameri¬ 
cans,  at  the  discretion  of  the  directors  of  the  Academy,  and 
for  the  issuance  of  a  gold  medal  by  the  painters’  jury  of 
selection. 

A  short  time  after  this  medal  had  been  sent  to  him,  Homer 
walked  into  Doll  &  Richards’s  store  in  Boston,  and  attended 
to  some  matters  of  business  ;  when  about  to  leave,  he  asked 
one  of  the  men  to  get  him  a  postage  stamp,  as  he  had  a  letter 
in  his  hand  which  he  wished  to  post.  The  request  having 
been  complied  with,  Homer  put  his  hand  in  his  trousers 
pocket  to  get  some  change  with  which  to  pay  for  the  stamp. 
He  fished  out  a  key,  a  button-hook,  some  coppers,  and  vari¬ 
ous  other  small  things,  among  which  was  the  Temple  gold 
medal !  It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  he  was  indif 
ferent  or  unappreciative.  On  the  contrary,  the  honors  that 
came  thick  and  fast  in  the  last  years  were  thoroughly  wel¬ 
come,  especially  when,  as  in  this  instance,  they  implied  the 
recognition  of  his  fellow-artists.  A  gold  medal  from  the  jury 
of  the  Charleston  (South  Carolina)  exposition  was  received 
the  same  year,  1902.  “Cannon  Rock’’  was  the  picture  ex¬ 
hibited  there. 

Mr.  Emerson  McMillin’s  pictures,  thirty-nine  in  number, 
were  exhibited  in  the  spring  at  the  Lotos  Club,  New  York. 
Almost  all  of  them  were  American  works,  and  the  gem  of  the 
collection  was  Homer’s  “  Storm-Beaten  ”  (or,  as  it  has  been 
sometimes  catalogued,  “Weather-Beaten”).  The  “Art  In¬ 
terchange,”  commenting  on  this  work,  said :  “  This  artist’s 
passion  for  the  sublime  swelling  of  a  billow  to  its  breaking 
point  often  restricts  him  to  this  motif  as  the  whole  picture, 
with  the  result  that  a  painting  of  his  often  has  the  suggestion 


THE  LOOKOUT  — ALL’S  WELL 
From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston 


. 

JJ3W  — TU0300J  3HT 

5Jj\\  V>  V.^MXUu  A  sAi  m  ?,5Ui;.  VO<4  YtO  3JM  WOV\ 

«oUoA  ,ihk  3«i,i  V)  ttmawm. 


THE  O’B.  PICTURE 


221 


of  a  magnificent  detail.  Here  there  is  more  sense  of  the  sea, 
and  the  color  is  a  delicious  blue.” 

At  the  sixty-fifth  exhibition  of  the  Boston  Art  Club,  Homer 
exhibited  his  “  Hunter  with  Dog,  North  Woods.”  This  is  the 
Adirondacks  subject,  an  oil  painting,  now  well  known  under 
the  title  of  “  Huntsman  and  Dogs,”  and  is  in  the  collection 
of  Mrs.  Bancel  La  Farge.  The  figure  of  the  hunter  is  shown 
standing  in  the  centre  of  the  foreground,  near  the  stump  of 
a  great  tree.  The  outline  of  the  upper  part  of  a  mountain 
forms  the  horizon,  and  the  sky  is  bleak  and  cold. 

At  the  sixty-sixth  exhibition  of  the  Boston  Art  Club  (wa- 
tercolors),  Homer  exhibited  “  The  Pioneer.”  My  catalogue 
marginal  notes  are  as  follows  :  — 

“  Violent  and  crude,  but  pungent  and  powerful.  Vivid 
light.  Fresh  and  crisp.  Cool,  bracing  air.  Sharp  opposition 
of  light  and  shade.  Aspect  of  morning  newness.  Personal 
accent.  A  rough  bit  of  country.” 

“A  High  Sea”  (or  “Watching  the  Breakers”)  was  ex¬ 
hibited  at  the  sixty-seventh  exhibition  of  the  Boston  Art  Club, 
in  1903  ;  and  “Inland  Water,  Bermuda,”  a  watercolor,  was 
exhibited  at  the  sixty-eighth  exhibition  of  the  same  club  in 
the  spring  of  the  same  year. 

Early  in  December,  1903,  we  find  Homer  in  New  York, 
making  ready  to  go  to  Key  West,  Florida,  by  sea,  for  the 
winter,  as  appears  from  the  following  note  to  his  brother :  — 

Dec.  5th,  1903. 

Dear  Arthur,  —  I  decide  to  go  direct  to  Key  West.  I 
have  stateroom  20,  upper  deck,  “Sabine,”  go  on  board  to¬ 
night,  leave  early  Sunday  morning.  I  know  the  place  quite 
well,  and  it ’s  near  the  points  in  Florida  that  I  wish  to  visit. 
I  have  an  idea  at  present  of  doing  some  work,  but  do  not 


222 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


know  how  long  that  will  last.  At  any  rate  I  will  once  more 
have  a  good  feed  of  goat  flesh  and  smoke  some  good  cigars 
and  catch  some  red  snappers.  I  shall  return  through  Florida 
and  by  May  be  at  Scarboro. 

Yours  affectionately, 

Winslow. 


CHAPTER  XVII 


HOURS  OF  DESPONDENCY 
1904-1908.  JEut.  68-72 

“Kissing  the  Moon” — An  Unfinished  Picture — Atlantic  City  —  Ad¬ 
vancing  Age  —  “  I  no  Longer  Paint  ”  —  “  Early  Evening  ”  —  “  Cape  Trin¬ 
ity  ”  - — The  Loan  Exhibition  in  Pittsburgh  —  First  Serious  Sickness  — 
Letters. 

KISSING  the  Moon’'  is  the  quaint  title  given  to  an 
oil  painting  dated  1904.  This  canvas,  forty  by  thirty 
inches  in  dimensions,  is  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Louis 
A.  Stimson  of  New  York.  Three  men  in  a  small  boat  are  only 
in  part  visible,  the  boat  itself  being  all  but  hid  by  a  great 
wave  in  the  foreground.  The  sea  is  rough,  and  a  wave  which 
is  relieved  against  the  horizon  appears  to  just  touch  with  its 
crest  the  lower  rim  of  the  full  moon.  We  catch  a  glimpse  of 
the  stern  of  the  boat,  and  the  head  and  shoulders  only  of  the 
two  men  who  are  rowing  are  to  be  seen.  The  men  wear  sou’- 
westers  and  oilskins.  The  helmsman  is  visible  almost  to  his 
waist.  The  bow  of  the  craft  rises  as  the  stern  settles  in  the 
trough  of  the  waves.  Although  so  much  of  the  boat  is  con¬ 
cealed,  the  impression  of  its  buoyancy  is  strongly  conveyed. 
The  novelty  of  the  design  is  sufficiently  suggested  by  this 
description  of  it.  The  picture  was  engraved  for  “The  Critic,” 
New  York,  April,  1905,  and  for  the  “Gazette  des  Beaux- 
Arts,”  Paris,  volume  51-2,  page  330,  1909,  where  it  figured 
under  the  title  “  Le  Baiser  de  la  Lune.”  In  the  New  York 
memorial  exhibition  of  19 11  it  was  named  “Sunset  and 
Moonrise.” 


224 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


In  the  art  department  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  Expo¬ 
sition,  at  St.  Louis,  1904,  there  were  three  works  by  Wins¬ 
low  Homer,  two  oil  paintings  and  one  watercolor.  “Early 
Morning  ”  was  lent  by  Messrs.  Knoedler  &  Company  of  New 
York;  “Weather-Beaten”  was  lent  by  Mr.  McMillin  of  New 
York;  and  the  watercolor  drawing  entitled  “Snake  in  the 
Grass”  was  lent  by  Mr.  J.  C.  Nicoll  of  New  York.  A  gold 
medal  was  awarded  to  the  artist. 

“Below  Zero,”  painted  in  1894,  was  exhibited  in  1904  at 
the  sixty-ninth  exhibition  of  the  Boston  Art  Club. 

Much  of  the  painter’s  time  was  devoted  to  watercolors,  and 
some  of  the  most  admirably  crisp  and  condensed  improvisa¬ 
tions  of  scenes  in  Florida  and  the  Adirondacks  bear  rhedate 
of  1904.  Nothing  could  be  more  in  tune  with  the  medium 
than  these  unrevised,  swift,  limpid,  and  resonant  drawings, 
in  which  the  spontaneous  working  of  mind,  eyes,  and  hand 
appears  as  natural  and  easy  as  the  flight  of  a  bird.  Referring 
to  two  of  the  Adirondacks  subjects  that  he  had  sent  to  Doll 
&  Richards  in  July,  1904,  Homer  wrote  to  the  firm  asking 
for  a  receipt,  “  as  I  value  them  highly.”  He  goes  on  to  say: 
“  I  could  make  a  fine  picture  by  combining  the  two  in  an 
oil  painting,”  and  he  inserts  in  the  middle  of  the  sentence  a 
rough  pen  sketch  of  two  canoes  meeting.  A  month  later  he 
returns  to  the  subject  in  another  letter  to  Doll  &  Richards,  in 
which  he  says  :  — 

“  Having  sold  a  picture  after  waiting  a  year  and  a  half, 
I  now  propose  painting  another,  and,  as  that  subject  of  the 
Rapids,  Upper  Saguenay  River,  is  the  most  easy  thing,  as  I 
have  many  studies  of  the  subject,  —  and  even  a  trip  up  there 
at  this  time  of  the  year  is  not  a  bad  thing, — I  will  ask  you 
to  send  me  the  three  drawings  lately  submitted  to  you.” 

The  proposed  painting  of  the  Rapids  was  not  to  be  fin- 


[ Facsimile  of  a  letter  from  Winslow  Homer  to  the  author.  ] 


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HOURS  OF  DESPONDENCY 


225 


ished.  It  stood  on  an  easel  for  several  years  in  the  studio, 
but  because  the  painter  did  not  wish  to  complete  it  without 
going  to  the  Upper  Saguenay  once  more,  it  was  left  un¬ 
finished  at  the  time  of  his  death.  It  was  shown  in  the  New 
York  memorial  exhibition  of  1911  under  the  title  of  “  Shoot¬ 
ing  the  Rapids.”  Changes  in  the  scale  and  pose  of  one  of  the 
three  figures  in  the  birch-bark  canoe  were  required,  and  some 
chalk  marks  show  what  these  were  to  have  been.  The  work 
in  its  present  condition  is  especially  interesting  to  painters, 
as  illustrating  methods.  It  was  not  carried  beyond  the  block¬ 
ing-in  stage,  but  it  would  have  been  a  wonderful  picture  had 
it  been  completed,  for  we  know  with  what  a  rush  and  sweep 
the  foreground  water  would  have  borne  the  frail  canoe  into 
the  boiling  rapids,  and  how  the  suspense  and  excitement 
of  the  action  depicted  would  have  been  brought  home  to  the 
imagination. 

Homer  passed  the  winter  of  1904-1905  in  Florida,  but  he 
found  it  too  cold  there  to  do  any  work  outdoors.  He  re¬ 
turned  to  Prout’s  Neck,  as  usual,  early  in  the  spring.  A 
series  of  his  watercolors  was  exhibited  at  the  Knoedler  gal¬ 
leries  in  New  York  in  April.  This  collection  contained  fish¬ 
ing  subjects  from  the  Province  of  Quebec  and  the  Adiron- 
dacks,  with  a  few  tropical  compositions.  “Sharks”  appears 
to  have  been  a  variation  on  the  theme  of  “The  Gulf  Stream,” 
as  it  had  for  its  chief  feature  a  derelict  abandoned  after  a 
cyclone  in  the  Caribbean  Sea,  and  a  school  of  sharks,  as  in 
the  oil  painting,  were  hovering  around  the  wrecked  craft,  on 
board  of  which,  however,  there  was  no  sign  of  life.  Among 
the  sporting  motives  were  “Man  Fishing  in  the  Adiron- 
dacks,”  “  Black  Bass,  Florida,”  “  In  the  Rapids,”  “  Blue  Ledge 
of  the  Hudson,”  “  Ouananiche  —  A  Good  Pool,”  “Channel 
Bass,”  etc.  A  curious  conceit  of  the  artist  was  noticed  in  the 


226 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


last-named  work,  which  showed  a  fish  outlined  against  the 
blue  waters  of  the  sea.  A  string  of  bottles  lay  in  the  fore¬ 
ground  ;  they  were  placed  there  evidently  to  show  the  rela¬ 
tive  size  of  the  fish.  “If  anyone  in  Maine  buys  the  picture,” 
said  Homer,  “  I  will  remove  the  bottles.” 

In  the  last  week  in  June  he  started  for  the  North  Woods 
Club,  at  Minerva,  Essex  County,  New  York,  for  a  fortnight 
of  fishing  and  sketching.  Writing  to  Doll  &  Richards  under 
date  of  June  24,  1905,  he  says:  — 

“  I  leave  to-morrow  for  the  North  Woods  Club,  Minerva, 
Essex  Co.,  N.  Y.,  but  my  address  is  still  Scarboro,  Me.  No¬ 
thing  will  be  forwarded  to  me.  I  return  in  two  weeks.  When 
I  gave  you  the  price  yesterday  I  forgot  my  favorite  picture 
for  my  own  collection,  and  that  is  ‘The  Pirate  Boat’  [here  is 
inserted  a  sketch  of  the  composition] ,  which  I  now  reserve . 
A  very  blue  sky.  Please  send  it  immediately  to  Scarboro, 
Me.” 

His  correspondence  with  Doll  &  Richards  reveals  the  fact 
that  he  occasionally  asked  the  privilege  of  buying  back  his 
own  watercolors.  In  1906  he  bought  “The  Club  Canoe,”  a 
Canadian  subject,  for  which  he  sent  his  check. 

He  passed  a  portion  of  the  winter  of  1905-1906  at  Atlantic 
City.  He  could  keep  warm  there,  and  found  the  material 
comforts  grateful  to  him.  Writing  from  the  Hotel  Rudolf, 
under  date  of  Dec.  23,  1905,  to  his  younger  brother,  he  said  : 

I  have  not  yet  settled  for  the  winter,  but  I  like  this  place 
so  much  that  I  shall  stay  another  week,  if  not  longer.  I  have 
such  a  fine  room  on  the  south  side,  first  story,  European 
plan,  —  no  crowd.  The  board  walk  about  forty  feet  wide  and 
three  miles  long.  No  snow  yet.  I  consider  it  the  best  place 
for  an  old  man  that  I  have  seen.  You  should  see  them  being 


HOURS  OF  DESPONDENCY 


227 


wheeled  about  in  the  bath  chairs  [drawing]  with  their  pink 
cheeks  and  white  hair,  and  gathered  up  in  sheltered  corners 
reading  the  papers.  It  would  be  very  slow  for  a  man  who 
cares  to  be  doing  anything  but  loaf  and  be  waited  on.  You 
have  until  you  are  seventy  years  old  before  you  would  think 
of  this  kind  of  thing.  I  wish  you  a  Merry  Christmas  and 
Happy  New  Year.  Aff’ly, 

Winslow. 

On  the  same  date  he  wrote  to  his  nephew,  Charles  Lowell 
Homer,  as  follows :  — 

“  After  seeing  a  tramp  steamer  burn  up  this  morning  (out 
at  sea),  I  had  a  quiet  half-hour  to  think  of  my  relations, 
knowing  they  were  not  on  board,  and  I  made  a  draft  of  my 
impression  of  things  in  the  way  of  a  Christmas  greeting  to 
them.  On  looking  at  it  now,  the  design  of  that  stick-pin  is 
too  good  not  to  send  you,  and  the  other  part  is  all  right.” 

He  enclosed  a  sketch  of  the  stick-pin,  which  he  thought 
would  be  a  very  appropriate  present  for  his  nephew,  but  in 
case  he  might  prefer  something  else  he  also  enclosed  a  check 
“to  boom  things  along  while  you  are  waiting  for  pay  day.” 
This  was  but  one  of  many  similar  evidences  of  his  thought¬ 
fulness  for  others  and  of  his  strong  family  feeling. 

In  several  letters  written  in  1906,  1907,  and  1908,  Homer 
alluded  to  his  purpose  to  quit  painting  for  good.  This  de¬ 
termination,  to  which,  however,  he  did  not  adhere  consist¬ 
ently,  and  of  which  he,  characteristically,  offered  no  explana¬ 
tion,  at  first  puzzled  me  not  a  little.  I  could  not  understand 
how  a  successful  painter,  in  the  enjoyment  of  good  health, 
and  with  no  family  cares  or  responsibilities,  could  tolerate 
the  idea  of  giving  up  his  work.  The  theory  which  would 
account  for  his  attitude  in  the  manner  most  honorable  to 


228 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


him  is  in  effect  as  follows :  It  is  quite  possible  that,  in  the 
intervals  between  the  severe  efforts  which  his  oil  paintings 
cost  him,  he  felt  a  sense  of  despondency,  partly  due  to  the 
reaction  from  the  excitement  and  nervous  strain  of  creative 
labor,  during  which  he  felt  that  he  had  done  his  best  work, 
and  that  in  future  he  might  retrograde.  He  doubdess  knew 
that  many  an  artist  has  outlived  himself,  so  to  speak,  con¬ 
tinuing  to  produce  work  after  passing  his  high-water  mark 
of  quality,  and  degenerating  into  a  maker  of  pot-boilers ; 
and  he  was  determined  that  this  should  not  happen  in  his 
own  case.  He  was  true  to  himself ;  conscious  of  the  high 
value  of  his  gifts ;  he  would  not,  for  all  that  the  world  had 
to  offer  in  the  way  of  emoluments,  trifle  with  the  sacred  fire 
that  had  been  committed  to  his  charge,  or  debase  his  art  to 
any  other  than  the  high  plane  of  dignity  on  which  he  had 
always  maintained  it.  It  was  not  in  him  to  delude  or  to  flat¬ 
ter  himself  on  this  or  on  any  other  point.  He  knew  that  with 
advancing  age  the  keenest  eyesight,  the  steadiest  hand,  the 
most  resolute  will  must  some  day  betray  the  slow  or  sudden 
processes  of  impairment  and  decay ;  and  the  knowledge 
brought  some  natural  bitterness  of  spirit.  Thus  he  could 
write,  in  an  hour  of  despondency,  those  sad  and  strange 
words,  “  I  care  nothing  for  art.  I  no  longer  paint.  I  do  not 
wish  to  see  my  name  in  print  again.”  1 

These  were  not  the  words  of  a  disappointed  artist.  On  all 
sides  the  evidences  of  his  spreading  fame  and  of  the  increas- 

1  Scarboro,  Maine,  July  4,  1907. 

My  dear  Mister  or  Madam  Leila  Mechlin,  —  I  thank  you  sincerely  for 
your  interest  in  proposing  an  article  on  ray  work.  Perhaps  you  think  that  I  am 
still  painting  and  interested  in  art.  That  is  a  mistake.  I  care  nothing  for  art. 
I  no  longer  paint.  I  do  not  wish  to  see  my  name  in  print  again. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Winslow  Homer. 


THE  MAINE  COAST 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  George  A. 
Hearn,  New  York 


. 

'  • 

. 

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/\\.  \o  ttovtamcn  «•*  £mA«v$a  Svo  $ivi  «m*\ 

<hoI  .",L  ;  w\as  vl 


HOURS  OF  DESPONDENCY 


229 


ing  demand  for  his  pictures  had  never  been  more  numerous 
or  more  emphatic.  “  The  Gulf  Stream  ”  had  been  bought  by 
the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  New  York,  only  a  year  be¬ 
fore,  under  circumstances  peculiarly  gratifying  to  the  artist. 
Every  public  art  museum  in  the  country  had  already  ob¬ 
tained  or  was  in  the  market  seeking  for  his  works.  “  High 
Cliff,  Coast  of  Maine,”  belonging  to  Mr.  William  T.  Evans, 
was  exhibited  at  the  Carnegie  Institute,  Pittsburg,  and  at 
the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  Philadelphia, 
and  was  later  presented  to  the  National  Gallery  of  Art, 
Washington.  “  Cloud  Shadows”  and  “Sparrow  Hall,  New- 
castle-on-Tyne  ”  were  exhibited  at  the  eleventh  annual  in¬ 
ternational  exhibition  of  the  Carnegie  Institute  in  the  same 
year.  “  Early  Evening,”  now  in  the  celebrated  collection  of 
Mr.  Charles  L.  Freer  of  Detroit,  and  which  was  begun  as 
early  as  1881,  in  Tynemouth,  was  also  completed  and  sold 
to  Mr.  Freer  this  same  year.  Finally,  the  Carnegie  Insti¬ 
tute  was  making  preparations  for  a  great  loan  exhibition  of 
Homer’s  works  to  be  opened  in  the  spring  of  1908. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  it  is  carrying  originality  far  to 
turn  one’s  back  upon  Fortune  when  she  is  smiling  on  one  in 
her  most  engaging  manner. 

“  Early  Evening  ”  is  a  composition  of  three  figures  which 
is  a  composite  of  English  figures  in  a  New  England  setting. 
The  two  young  women  at  the  right  centre  are  unquestion¬ 
ably  from  studies  made  at  Tynemouth  in  1882,  for  the  same 
plump  models  appear  in  more  than  one  of  the  Tynemouth 
series  of  watercolors.  Outlined  sharply  against  the  sky,  these 
figures  have  something  of  the  plastic  quality  of  a  sculptured 
group.  The  gentle  sea  breeze  moves  their  skirts  and  aprons 
as  they  stand  on  a  ledge  overlooking  the  ocean.  These 
young  women  are  not  nervous  types  ;  they  are  almost  phleg- 


230 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


matic,  and  their  natural  reposefuiness  of  bearing  was  one 
of  the  qualities  that  doubtless  recommended  them  to  the 
painter.  One  of  them  is  knitting,  and  the  other  apparently 
has  placed  her  right  arm  about  her  companion’s  waist.  Lower 
in  the  picture,  and  at  the  left,  is  the  upper  half  of  the  form  of 
an  old  salt  carrying  a  spy-glass.  The  rocks  and  junipers  are 
as  obviously  those  of  Prout’s  Neck  as  the  human  types  are 
those  of  Tynemouth. 

The  oil  painting  entitled  “  Cape  Trinity,  Saguenay  River, 
Moonlight,”  was  begun  in  1904,  but  it  was  not  finished  until 
the  winter  of  1906-1907,  possibly  later.  It  depicts  a  great 
promontory  with  numerous  rounded  ledges  which  juts  out 
from  the  right  and  occupies  a  large  part  of  the  canvas.  At 
its  base  is  the  river,  which  reflects  the  dark  mass  and  winds 
around  the  point  of  the  cape  at  the  left.  On  the  distant  shore 
at  the  left  there  are  ranges  of  hills  against  the  low  horizon. 
The  sky  is  cloudy.  A  quarter  moon  just  above  the  headland 
is  reflected  in  the  dark  water  in  the  foreground.  The  work 
is  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Burton  Mansfield,  of  New  Haven, 
Connecticut.  Mr.  Mansfield  informs  me  that  when  he  called 
on  Homer  at  Prout’s  Neck  in  the  autumn  of  1904,  he  was  at 
work  on  this  picture.  The  artist  told  Mr.  Mansfield  that  there 
was  a  gentleman  who  had  shown  some  interest  in  it,  and 
might  perhaps  buy  it,  but  that  if  he  did  not,  he  (Homer) 
would  put  his  boot  through  it.  The  picture  is  twenty-nine 
by  forty-eight  and  one  half  inches  in  dimensions.  Inscribed 
on  the  back  of  the  stretcher  are  the  words  :  “  This  is  to  cer¬ 
tify  that  I  painted  this  picture  of  Cape  Trinity.  Winslow 
Homer,  June,  1909.” 

In  the  Philadelphia  w^atercolor  exhibition,  held  at  the 
Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  in  the  spring  of 
1906,  there  were  nine  works  by  Homer,  as  follows  :  “  A  Good 


HOURS  OF  DESPONDENCY 


231 


Pool,”  “  Channel  Bass,”  “  Hudson  River  at  Blue  Ledge,” 
“  Black  Bass,  Florida,”  “  Building  a  Smudge,”  “  Pike,” 
“Trout  and  Float,”  “View  from  Prospect  Hill,  Bermuda,” 
“  Herring  Fishing.” 

The  unique  feature  of  the  twelfth  annual  exhibition  at  the 
Carnegie  Institute,  Pittsburg,  in  the  spring  of  1908,  was  the 
special  group  of  works  by  Winslow  Homer,  loaned  by  public 
and  private  galleries  for  the  occasion.  Twenty-two  oil  paint¬ 
ings  were  brought  together  by  Mr.  Beatty  in  this  collection, 
such  a  group  of  Homer’s  pictures  as  never  had  been  seen  in 
one  place.  The  group  was  hung  in  a  gallery  by  itself,  with 
every  canvas  on  the  line,  and  thus  displayed  to  the  utmost 
possible  advantage.  Here  were  to  be  seen  “  Hark  1  the  Lark,” 
lent  by  the  Layton  Art  Gallery,  Milwaukee,  Wisconsin  ; 
“  Hound  and  Hunter,”  lent  by  Mr.  Louis  Ettlinger,  New 
York;  “The  Fisher  Girl,”  lent  by  Mr.  Burton  Mansfield, 
New  Haven,  Connecticut;  “The  Wreck,”  belonging  to  the 
permanent  collection  of  the  Carnegie  Institute  ;  “  On  a  Lee 
Shore,”  owned  by  the  Rhode  Island  School  of  Design,  Provi¬ 
dence  ;  “  A  Light  on  the  Sea,”  from  the  permanent  collection 
of  the  Corcoran  Gallery  of  Art,  Washington  ;  “  Early  Even¬ 
ing,”  from  Mr.  Charles  L.  Freer’s  collection;  “The  Fox 
Hunt,”  belonging  to  the  permanent  collection  of  the  Penn¬ 
sylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  Philadelphia ;  “  The 
Gulf  .Stream,”  “  Cannon  Rock,”  and  “  Searchlight :  Harbor 
Entrance,  Santiago  de  Cuba,”  from  the  Metropolitan  Museum 
of  Art,  New  York;  “Sunset,  Saco  Bay,  —  The  Coming 
Storm,”  from  the  Lotos  Club,  New  York;  “The Gale,”  from 
the  private  collection  of  Mrs.  B.  Ogden  Chisolm,  New  York ; 
“  Banks  Fishermen,”  from  the  private  collection  of  Mr.  Charles 
W.  Gould,  New  York;  “Undertow,”  from  Mr.  Edward  D. 
Adams’s  collection,  New  York ;  the  “  Huntsman  and  Dog,” 


232 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


from  Mrs.  Bancel  La  Farge’s  collection  ;  the  “  Flight  of  Wild 
Geese,”  from  the  collection  of  Mrs.  Roland  C.  Lincoln  of 
Boston;  “The  Lookout  —  All’s  Well,”  and  “The  Fog 
Warning”  from  the  permanent  collection  of  the  Museum  of 
Fine  Arts,  Boston;  “The  Maine  Coast,”  lent  by  Mr.  C.  J. 
Blair  of  Chicago  ;  “  The  Two  Guides,”  from  the  same  collec¬ 
tion  ;  and  the  “  High  Cliff,  Coast  of  Maine,”  from  the  per¬ 
manent  collection  of  the  National  Gallery  of  Art,  Washington. 

One  of  the  remarkable  things  about  this  list  is  that  it  was 
so  largely  made  up  of  pictures  owned  by  the  public  art  mu¬ 
seums  of  America.  Eight  museums  were  represented  by  no 
less  than  eleven  pictures,  —  just  one  half  of  the  entire  collec¬ 
tion.  In  the  history  of  the  art  of  painting  in  America  it  would 
be  quite  impossible  to  find  another  living  artist  with  such  a 
number  of  his  works  in  public  collections.  The  exhibition  in 
Pittsburg  constituted  the  first  serious  attempt  to  bring  to¬ 
gether  enough  of  the  painter’s  representative  canvases  to 
give  an  adequate  idea  of  what  the  man  stood  for  in  art,  and 
it  was  an  overwhelming  demonstration  of  his  originality, 
power,  and  distinction. 

The  picture  owned  by  Mr.  Blair  of  Chicago  and  catalogued 
in  the  Pittsburg  exhibition  as  the  “  Maine  Coast  ”  was  not 
the  work  properly  and  usually  called  by  this  name,  but  the 
“  Coast  in  Winter,”  which  was  acquired  by  Mr.  Blair  at  the 
sale  of  the  Clarke  collection  in  1899.  The  catalogue  con¬ 
tained  a  small  portrait  of  the  artist  and  reproductions  on  a 
small  scale  of  “  The  Two  Guides,”  “  Huntsman  and  Dog,” 
and  the  “  High  Cliff,  Coast  of  Maine.” 

Dr.  George  Woodward  loaned  to  the  sixth  annual  Phila¬ 
delphia  watercolor  exhibition,  held  jointly  by  the  Pennsyl¬ 
vania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts  and  the  Philadelphia  Wa¬ 
tercolor  Club,  in  1908,  four  of  Homer’s  Works,  namely: 


THE  WRECK 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Carnegie  Institute ,  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania 


' 

KD-T5IW  2HT 

\o  a&  sr*  ^KsUwa^  Vtb  1'Ai  itiovl 

•’.x'-i'W3V<;?.vtKatI  ,$'us<ki\‘vc5.  .siuvUtwL 


HOURS  OF  DESPONDENCY 


233 


“  Prout’s  Neck,  Maine,”  “  The  Spanish  Flag,”  “  Prout’s  Neck, 
Maine,”  and  “Volante.”  One  of  the  Prout’s  Neck  subjects 
was  illustrated  in  the  catalogue,  and  appears  to  have  been 
the  broadest  kind  of  a  sketch. 

In  the  early  summer  of  1908  Homer  suffered  the  first  seri¬ 
ous  sickness  of  his  life,  the  precursor  of  what  was  to  come 
two  years  later.  One  morning  he  made  his  appearance  at 
Arthur  B.  Homer’s  cottage,  and  appeared  to  be  very  shaky. 
Pie  said :  — 

“  I  don’t  know  what ’s  the  matter  with  me.  I  have  been 
two  hours  getting  dressed  and  getting  over  here.” 

He  was  giddy ;  his  eyesight  was  affected ;  and  he  could 
not  do  much  with  his  hands.  He  would  reach  for  his  teacup 
and  miss  it  by  some  inches,  showing  that  his  vision  was  im¬ 
paired.  His  brother  persuaded  him  to  stay  with  him  for  a 
while,  and  he  consented.  He  remained  there  for  about  two 
weeks.  At  the  end  of  that  time  Arthur  went  to  Winslow’s 
bedroom  quite  early  one  morning  to  see  how  he  was  feeling, 
and  found  that  he  had  gone.  There  was  a  note  on  the  desk 
in  the  living-room  :  — 

I  am  well,  and  have  quit. 

Winslow. 

His  brother  did  not  see  him  again  for  forty-eight  hours. 
He  had  resumed  ork  in  the  studio.  He  soon  recovered 
sufficiently  to  make  a  trip  to  the  Adirondacks.  Under  date 
of  June  15,  1908,  he  wrote  to  me :  — 

My  DEAR  Mr.  DOWNES,  —  Two  weeks  ago  I  found  my¬ 
self  utterly  unable  to  write  a  single  word,  but  I  am  rapidly 
recovering  the  power  to  do  so. 

I  cheerfully  acknowledge  my  great  obligations  to  you,  and 


234 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


I  will  answer  your  letter  at  length  when  I  return  from  the 
Adirondacks  in  about  a  month. 

I  am  told  not  to  write  too  much,  at  present,  and  I  will 
recover. 

I  am  very  well  all  but  this.  I  am  all  packed  up  and  go  by 
way  of  Montreal,  Canada. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Winslow  Homer. 

After  his  return  from  the  Adirondacks,  in  August,  he  wrote 
as  follows :  — 

Scarboro,  Maine,  Augt.,  1908. 

Mr.  William  Howe  Downes, 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  returned  here  last  Thursday,  and  I  will 
now  answer  your  letter  of  June  13th. 

It  may  seem  ungrateful  to  you  that  after  your  twenty-five 
years  of  hard  work  in  booming  my  pictures  I  should  not 
agree  with  you  in  regard  to  that  proposed  sketch  of  my  life. 

But  I  think  that  it  would  probably  kill  me  to  have  such 
[a]  thing  appear,  and,  as  the  most  interesting  part  of  my 
life  is  of  no  concern  to  the  public,  I  must  decline  to  give 
you  any  particulars  in  regard  to  it. 

I  am  making  arrangements  to  live  as  long  as  my  father 
and  both  my  grandfathers,  all  of  them  over  eighty-five. 

By  that  you  may  understand  that  I  have  given  up  paint- 
ing  for  good. 

No  painter’s  colic  for  me.  I  have  much  to  see  and  do  in 
these  few  years,  but  pictures  are  out  of  it. 

I  should  like  very  much  to  do  you  some  favor  for  old 
times’  sake.  I  will  think  up  something. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Winslow  Homer. 


HOURS  OF  DESPONDENCY 


235 


To  a  young  girl  in  Chicago  who  had  sent  to  him  asking 
for  his  autograph  he  wrote  the  following  letter :  — 

Scarboro,  Maine,  Sept.  10,  1908. 

My  DEAR  Miss  Young,  —  You  are  certainly  very  kind 
to  write  me  this  interesting  letter,  and  I  am  quite  sure  that 
after  hearing  Prof.  Zug  you  are  on  the  right  track,  if  you 
wish  in  any  way  to  follow  in  my  footsteps  in  matters  of  art. 
It  is  some  time  since  you  wrote  that  letter  asking  for  the 
autograph,  but  I  have  only  just  received  the  letter  from 
Minerva.  I  was  there  for  a  month  in  the  spring,  but  my 
only  address  is  Scarboro,  Maine. 

I  now  take  pleasure  in  sending  you  the  autograph. 

Winslow  Homer. 

With  great  respect,  to  Miss  Margaret  L.  Young. 

Early  in  the  winter  of  1908-1909  he  went  to  Bermuda  for 
several  months’  stay.  He  seemed  to  gain  strength,  but  he 
was  never  quite  the  same  man  physically  as  he  had  been 
previous  to  the  sickness  of  the  summer  of  1908.  For  the 
most  part  he  now  stuck  to  his  resolution  to  leave  painting 
alone,  except  that  he  made  a  few  watercolors.  As  will  be 
noticed,  he  clung  with  peculiar  pertinacity  to  his  purpose  of 
prolonging  his  life.  He  began  to  look  like  an  old  man,  how¬ 
ever,  and  showed  traces  of  suffering. 

His  brother  Arthur  tried  in  vain  to  persuade  him  to  make 
a  list  of  his  pictures  and  their  whereabouts.  Asked  if  he  knew 
where  his  works  were,  and  who  owned  them,  he  replied  that 
he  knew  where  most  of  them  were. 

“  Well,  then,”  said  his  brother,  “  why  won’t  you  make  a 
list?” 

“  Why  should  I,  so  long  as  I  know  ?  ” 


236 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


“  But  nobody  else  will  know  after  you  are  gone.” 

“  After  I  am  dead  I  shan’t  care.” 

Writing  to  the  same  brother  in  November  to  acknowledge 
a  gift  of  cigars,  to  decline  an  invitation  to  spend  Thanksgiv¬ 
ing  with  him,  and  to  report  that  he  was  again  at  work  paint¬ 
ing,  he  took  occasion  to  playfully  pay  his  respects  to  that 
Boston  institution,  “The  Evening  Transcript:”  — 

November  19,  1909. 

(Or,  as  you  would  say,  S.  T.  i860  X.) 

DEAR  Arthur,  —  I  rec’d  the  cigars  with  thanks.  As  I 
must  write  to  acknowledge  the  cigars,  I  may  as  well  say 
that  I  cannot  accept  your  invitation  to  Thanksgiving,  — 
which,  as  the  old  maid  “  Boston  Transcript”  would  say,  was 
to  be  expected  in  the  “  near  future .”  I  call  it  soon.  And  so, 
also  quoting  that  same  newspaper,  which  originated  the  say¬ 
ing  “  thanking  you  in  advance ,”  and  again  quoting  that  old 
maid  newspaper,  I  am  still  thanking  you  for  “  that  long  felt 
want  ”  —  the  cigars. 

I  breakfast  at  seven  every  [morning] .  I  have  little  time 
for  anything;  many  letters  unanswered,  and  work  unfinished. 
I  am  painting.  I  am  just  through  work  at  3.30.  Cannot  give 
you  any  more  time. 


W.  Homer. 


WATCHING  THE  BREAKERS:  A  HIGH  SEA 
From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of 
Mrs.  H.  W.  Rogers 


' 


a'HorH  :  ■  ro 

.  ■  ■ ;  ‘  ■  §?  :  ’■ 

i'vs'soS  .  t  f  .K  .ill 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

INCIDENTS  OF  THE  LAST  YEARS 
1908-1910.  JEtzt.  72-74 

Aversion  to  Notoriety  —  The  Rubber-Stamp  Signature  —  Characteristic 
Sayings  —  Mural  Paintings  —  “  Right  and  Left  ”  —  “  Driftwood  ”  —  For¬ 
eign  Opinion — Dread  of  Counterfeiters — Mr.  Macbeth’s  Visit  —  Questions 
that  were  Never  Answered. 

WITH  advancing  age  the  grooves  of  habit  are  deep¬ 
ened,  and  Winslow  Homer’s  reluctance  to  consort 
with  people  was  never  more  pronounced  than  dur¬ 
ing  the  last  years  of  his  life.  He  had  become  a  celebrity  in 
spite  of  himself ;  but  with  the  widening  of  his  fame  his  aver¬ 
sion  to  notoriety  became  all  the  stronger.  He  refused  to  be 
lionized.  He  accepted  homage  with  small  grace.  He  re¬ 
ceived  compliments  with  unconcealed  coolness.  For  flattery 
he  had  nothing  but  silent  contempt.  He  did  not  want  to  be 
bothered ;  he  wanted  to  be  let  alone  ;  there  are  a  thousand 
and  one  little  things  in  the  daily  lives  of  most  folk  which  he 
could  and  did  gladly  eliminate  from  his  existence  as  futile 
and  foolish.  The  ultimate  expression  of  his  enthusiasm  for  a 
wTork  of  art  which  appealed  to  him  was :  “  That  is  a  good 
thing.”  He  loathed  superlatives  ;  wasted  no  words  ;  and  had 
a  holy  horror  of  bores.  The  one  thing  that  saved  him  from 
becoming  downright  misanthropic  at  times  was  the  Yankee 
sense  of  humor  which  enabled  him  to  see  the  comical  side 
of  humanity’s  unbounded  capacity  for  rambling  and  earnest 
vapidity. 

As  he  seldom  arranged  to  have  his  mail  forwarded  to  him 


238 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


when  he  was  away  from  home,  there  would  often  be  a  batch 
of  fifty  or  sixty  letters  awaiting  him  on  his  return  to  Prout’s 
Neck.  If  the  weather  was  fine  and  he  was  interested  in  mak¬ 
ing  a  picture,  he  would  let  the  mail  lie  on  his  desk  unopened 
until  there  came  a  rainy  day,  when  he  would  turn  his  atten¬ 
tion  to  his  correspondence.  Requests  from  strangers  for  his 
autograph  annoyed  him.  Finally  his  younger  brother  had  a 
rubber  stamp  made  and  presented  it  to  him,  saying,  “  Here, 
Win,  now  you  can  get  even  with  the  autograph  fiends.” 
He  accepted  the  suggestion,  and  actually  used  it  in  lieu  of 
his  own  signature  in  some  cases. 

Among  the  letters  that  he  received  from  admiring  and  in¬ 
quisitive  women  was  one  asking  him  what  was  “in  that  bar¬ 
rel”  aboard  the  dory,  in  the  picture  of  “The  Fog  Warning.” 
In  telling  of  this  he  made  no  comment  in  words. 

As  a  young  man,  Mr.  Baker  says  Homer  was  “as  fine  as 
silk,”  meaning  that  he  was  fastidious,  having  a  vein  of  aris¬ 
tocratic  feeling,  or,  to  put  it  in  the  gracious  French  phrase, 
was  une  nature  d’ elite.  This  is  the  testimony  of  one  who 
stood  exceptionally  close  to  him,  and  one  who,  besides,  was 
by  nature  and  training  a  keen  observer.  To  a  man  of  Homer’s 
temperament  it  is  but  a  measure  of  instinctive  self-defense  to 
erect  invisible  barriers  against  easy  intimacies,  to  tacitly  ig¬ 
nore  many  of  the  petty  interests  which  complicate  existence 
needlessly  and  stand  in  the  way  of  concentration. 

Emerson  understood  the  type.  Many  of  the  things  he 
wrote  in  his  essays  describe  Homer,  and  might  well  have 
been  written  about  him  personally.  Speaking  of  the  neces¬ 
sity  of  solitude,  he  says  we  are  “  driven,  as  with  whips,  into 
the  desert.”  But  there  is  danger  in  this  seclusion.  “  Now 
and  then  a  man  exquisitely  made  can  live  alone  and  must ; 
but  coop  up  most  men  and  you  undo  them.”  Again  he 


INCIDENTS  OF  THE  LAST  YEARS  239 


says :  “  Solitude,  the  safeguard  of  mediocrity,  is  to  genius 
the  stern  friend,  the  cold,  obscure  shelter,  where  moult  the 
wings  which  will  bear  it  farther  than  suns  and  stars.”  In 
another  place  Emerson  writes :  “  I  count  him  a  great  man 
who  inhabits  a  higher  sphere  of  thought  into  which  other 
men  rise  with  labor  and  difficulty ;  he  has  but  to  open  his 
eyes  to  see  things  in  a  true  light  and  in  large  relations."  The 
italics  are  mine.  And  yet  again, — as  if  he  were  actually 
thinking  of  Winslow  Homer,  —  “  he  is  great  who  is  what  he 
is  from  nature,  and  who  never  reminds  us  of  others.” 

Winslow  Homer  has  been  compared  with  Walt  Whitman 
more  than  once.  Aside  from  the  Americanism  of  the  two 
men,  as  inarticulate  in  Homer’s  case  as  it  is  vocal  in  Whit¬ 
man’s,  I  can  see  but  little  likeness  in  their  characters.  Why 
compare  Homer  with  any  man  ?  He  was  unique.  He  never 
reminds  us  of  others. 

If  it  is  commonly  the  fate  of  greatness  to  be  misunderstood, 
Winslow  Homer  was  a  happy  exception  to  the  rule.  The  sin¬ 
cere  and  unanimous  and  unfaltering  admiration  of  the  artists 
of  America  for  his  work  was  his  from  his  very  debut  as  a 
painter,  and  it  was  generously  shared  by  the  American  critics, 
picture  buyers,  and  even  the  public  at  large.  He  was  under¬ 
stood,  admired,  and  loved.  Indeed,  there  was  every  reason 
why  this  should  be  so.  There  was  nothing  recondite,  obscure, 
or  occult  in  his  art :  it  was  made  not  for  a  special  clientele 
of  cultured  cognoscenti,  but  for  the  man  in  the  street,  and 
it  had  in  it  the  large,  homely  truthfulness,  the  modesty  of 
nature,  that  appeals  to  the  mind  and  heart  of  humanity, 
gentle  and  simple.  To  be  understood  is  a  great  happiness 
for  the  artist,  and  this  satisfaction  came  early  to  Homer  and 
stayed  to  the  end.  Perhaps  we  do  not  yet  realize  how  great 
a  man  he  was,  but  it  is  pleasant  to  reflect  that  he  was  not 


240 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


neglected,  and  that,  as  such  things  go  in  our  day  and  coun¬ 
try,  the  measure  of  his  success  was  as  exceptional  in  its  com¬ 
pleteness  as  it  was  prompt  in  point  of  time. 

Mr.  Chase,  in  his  reminiscences,1  speaks  of  Homer  as  “a 
charming  companion,  not  effusive,  witty  and  racy  in  his  con¬ 
versation.  The  wrinkles  around  the  eyes  in  this  somewhat 
austere  face  recorded  the  rare  humor  that  had  helped  as  a 
solvent  to  the  difficult  things  in  life  which  I  feel  that  he  must 
have  known.”  His  words  were  often  open  to  an  ironical  in¬ 
terpretation,  and  one  could  not  always  make  sure  whether 
he  was  speaking  seriously  or,  as  the  pithy  slang  phrase  has 
it,  “  through  his  hat.”  Mr.  Bernard  De  Vine,  a  young  artist, 
who  spent  a  season  at  Prout’s  Neck,  tells  me  that  not  long 
ago  a  New  York  gentleman  of  an  adventurous  disposition 
traveled  all  the  way  to  Scarboro  to  make  Homer’s  acquaint¬ 
ance,  and  when  he  arrived  there,  found  the  studio  door  locked, 
and  the  owner  absent.  He  wandered  about  the  cliffs  for  a 
while,  and  presently  he  met  a  man  wearing  a  rough  old  suit 
of  clothes,  rubber  boots,  and  a  battered  felt  hat,  and  carrying 
a  fish-pole.  He  accosted  the  fisherman  thus  :  — 

“  I  say,  my  man,  if  you  can  tell  me  where  I  can  find  Wins¬ 
low  Homer,  I  have  a  quarter  here  for  you.” 

Instantly  the  fisherman  replied  :  “  Where ’s  your  quarter  ?  ” 
He  handed  it  over :  and  was  astounded  to  hear  the  quiz¬ 
zical  Yankee  fisherman  say  :  “  I  am  Winslow  Homer.”  The 
sequel  of  this  novel  meeting  was  that  Homer  took  the  enter¬ 
prising  person  up  to  the  studio,  entertained  him,  and,  before 
he  left,  sold  him  a  picture. 

To  Mr.  De  Vine  I  am  also  indebted  for  the  following  in¬ 
cident  :  Father  H.,  the  Catholic  priest  who  officiated  at  the 
little  chapel  at  Prout’s  Neck  that  summer,  knocked  at  the 
1  In  Harper's  Weekly,  October  22,  1910. 


A  LIGHT  ON  THE  SEA 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Corcoran  Gallery  of  Art,  Washington 


HAULING  IN  ANCHOR 
Watercolor  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the  Cincin¬ 
nati  Museum  Association.  Painted  at  Key  West 


■ 

. 

' 


■ 


,V. !  V'  ':\Vsr',  v  .v';otttcO 


INCIDENTS  OF  THE  LAST  YEARS  241 


door  of  the  studio  late  one  evening.  Homer  came  to  the  door 
and  stormed  at  him  for  presuming  to  disturb  him  at  that 
hour.  “Why,”  said  he,  “even  my  own  brothers  do  not  dare 
to  disturb  me  at  this  time  of  night.” 

“  But,”  said  the  young  clergyman,  sweetly,  “  I  am  not 
your  brother,  Mr.  Homer ;  I  am  your  Father.” 

Homer  smiled,  softened,  let  him  in,  and  by  and  by  sent 
him  home  with  a  generous  gift  for  the  little  chapel. 

There  is  something  very  attractive  about  these  bitter-sweet 
characters. 

Some  of  Homer’s  sarcasms  were  severe.  Mr.  De  Vine 
asked  him  if  he  had  heard  that  Mr.  J.,  a  mediocre  artist,  had 
quit  painting  and  gone  into  business.  He  looked  at  the 
young  man  a  moment,  and  then  said  dryly:  “When  did  he 
ever  begin  painting  ?  ” 

At  another  time  he  was  told  that  two  well-known  New 
York  landscape  painters  were  sketching  in  the  neighbor¬ 
hood,  and  he  growled,  “What  are  those  amateurs  doing 
around  here?”  But  when  I  repeated  this  remark  to  his 
brother,  he  said  :  “That  was  not  like  him.”  He  was  usually 
courteous  and  kindly  towrards  his  professional  brethren,  and 
had  a  becoming  esprit  de  corps. 

When  Homer  called  on  Mrs.  Joseph  De  Camp,  the  daugh¬ 
ter  of  his  old  comrade  Joseph  E.  Baker  (the  DeCamp  family 
being  at  Prout’s  Neck  for  the  summer),  he  told  her  that  one 
of  the  mistakes  of  his  life  had  been  that  he  did  not  affiliate 
with  “the  boys,”  meaning  the  artists.  He  declined  repeated 
invitations  to  dinner,  and  excused  himself  frankly  on  the  plea 
that  his  teeth  were  in  such  poor  case  that  he  was  not  able  to 
masticate  his  food  properly.  Mrs.  De  Camp  found  him  “  a 
very  courteous  old  gentleman.”  He  brought  her  a  quaint 
nosegay  of  old-fashioned  flowers  from  his  garden.  He  also 


242 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


brought  and  presented  to  her  a  portrait  of  himself  drawn  in 
lead-pencil  by  her  father,  Mr.  Baker,  in  1857,  in  Boston,  at 
the  time  when  they  had  been  fellow-apprentices  at  the  Buf- 
ford  lithograph  shop ;  and  this  drawing,  made  when  Homer 
was  a  youth  of  twenty-one,  Mrs.  De  Camp  has  kindly  loaned 
to  the  publishers  of  this  volume  for  reproduction.  It  is  un¬ 
doubtedly  the  earliest  existing  portrait  of  Homer. 

In  1908  Homer  -wrote  to  Mr.  Charles  A.  Green  of  Rochester, 
New  York,  that  during  his  absence  from  his  studio  at  Prout’s 
Neck  in  the  winter,  thieves  broke  in  and  carried  off  much 
that  was  of  value.  His  lament  was  greatest  over  the  loss  of  a 
watch  which  had  been  given  him  by  his  mother,  long  since 
dead.  He  made  a  drawing  of  the  dial  of  this  watch,  which 
was  of  an  unusual  character,  and  enclosed  it  in  his  letter. 

A  woman  artist  had  made  a  copy  of  a  fine  old  painting. 
It  was  such  a  good  copy  that  some  people  went  so  far  as  to 
say  that  they  could  not  tell  the  original  from  the  copy.  The 
artist  suggested  to  Charles  S.  Homer  that  he  should  show 
the  copy  to  Winslow,  without  telling  him  anything  about  it, 
in  order  to  see  what  he  would  have  to  say  of  it.  This  was 
done.  Winslow  Homer,  after  examining  the  canvas,  some¬ 
what  deliberately,  said :  — 

“  This  is  a  copy,  made  by  a  woman,  after  an  original 
which  may  be  a  good  thing.” 

When  the  woman  artist  heard  what  he  had  said,  she  was 
angry. 

“  Enchanted,”  a  painting  by  Homer,  was  in  the  private 
collection  of  the  late  John  T.  Martin  of  New  York,  which  wras 
sold  at  auction  on  April  15  and  16,  1909,  by  the  American 
Art  Association.  The  picture,  twelve  by  twenty  inches  in 
dimensions,  was  bought  by  Mr.  N.  Strauss,  for  three  hun¬ 
dred  and  fifty  dollars. 


INCIDENTS  OF  THE  LAST  YEARS  243 


“  The  Unruly  Call,”  belonging  to  Mr.  Charles  A.  Schieren, 
was  exhibited  at  the  Brooklyn  Institute  of  Arts  and  Sciences 
the  same  year. 

At  the  fourth  annual  exhibition  of  selected  paintings  by 
American  artists,  at  the  Albright  Art  Gallery,  Buffalo,  New 
York,  May  10  to  August  30,  1909,  “  Early  Evening,”  from 
Mr.  Freeds  collection,  and  a  picture  entided  “  Spring  ”  were 
exhibited. 

We  are  not  accustomed  to  thinking  of  Homer  as  a  painter 
of  mural  decorations,  nevertheless  he  had  tried  his  hand  at 
this  difficult,  and,  to  him,  unaccustomed  undertaking,  and 
the  subjoined  passage  from  a  letter  written  by  Augustus 
Saint- Gaudens,  the  sculptor,  to  Charles  F.  McKim,  the  archi¬ 
tect,  in  regard  to  the  then  proposed  mural  decorations  for 
the  Boston  Public  Library,1  will  serve  to  show  the  esteem  in 
which  his  work  was  held  by  Edwin  A.  Abbey  :  — 

“  I ’ve  just  seen  Abbey  again,  and  he  is  all  wound  up,  as 
I  am,  about  the  Library  business,  and  if  anything  should 
turn  up,  he  would  come  back  from  Europe  next  year  for  it 
We  have  made  up  a  list  of  names,  all  strong  men,  and  he 
suggests  having  them  meet  at  your  office  next  week,  to  pow¬ 
wow  some  evening  —  Wednesday,  if  possible.  He  suggests 
that  White  be  there,  and  that  all  the  photos  of  decorative 
work  be  got  out,  —  Masaccio,  Carpaccio,  Benozzo  Gozzoli, 
Botticelli,  &c.,  to  show  and  to  talk  over.  If  you  think  well 
of  this  let  me  know,  and  I  ’ll  get  the  fellows  together.  Aside 
from  La  Farge,  ‘quiva  sans  dire,’  and  to  whom  undoubtedly 
the  big  room  should  be  given,  the  following  are  the  names 
that  you  should  consider  in  this  matter :  Abbey,  Bridgman, 
Cox,  Millet,  Winslow  Homer  (who,  Abbey  tells  me,  has  done 
some  bully  decorative  things  in  Harper’s  office  that  we  can  go 
1  In  the  Century  Magazine  for  August,  1909. 


244 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


see  together),  and  Howard  Pyle.  These  are  all  strong  men 
—  every  darned  one  of  them.” 

The  mural  paintings  by  Homer  of  which  Mr.  Abbey  had 
told  Mr.  Saint-Gaudens  were  made  for  the  business  office  of 
Harper  &  Brothers,  Franklin  Square,  New  York.  They  were 
three  in  number,  and  represented  :  i.  Castle  Garden  ;  2. 
Harper  &  Brothers’  building  and  the  interior  of  the  press¬ 
room  ;  3.  The  Genius  of  the  Press.  When  I  called  at  Harper 
&  Brothers’  establishment,  in  February,  1911,  and  asked 
about  these  decorations,  nobody  knew  anything  about  them, 
and,  though  a  frieze  in  the  office  was  shown,  it  apparently 
did  not  include  the  panels  by  Homer. 

Homer  had  asked  John  LaFarge  for  advice  about  these 
mural  paintings  when  the  commission  was  given  to  him,  and 
we  have  La  Farge’s  testimony  as  to  their  merits  in  the 
guarded  statement  that  they  were  as  learned  as  if  the  artist 
had  consulted  all  necessary  books.  “  Many  people,”  said 
La  Farge,1  “do  not  know  that  he  had  even  thought  of 
stained  glass  and  wall  decoration.  He  came  to  me  late  to 
consult  me  about  these  questions.  The  wall  decoration  I  saw 
the  project  for,  and  it  was  as  learned  as  if  this  man  had  con¬ 
sulted  all  necessary  books.  His  glass  I  had  no  idea  of.  I 
doubt  if  he  himself  had  any  notion,  but  I  regret  that  such  an 
impossible  thing  should  not  have  been  tried.  It  is  a  great 
honor  to  me  that  he  came  to  me  once  to  ask,  and  he  was 
very  frank  in  his  admiration  or  his  criticism.  .  .  .” 

After  having  abstained  heroically  from  doing  any  work  in 
oils  for  a  time,  Homer  painted  another  picture  in  November, 
1909.  The  title  of  it  is  “  Right  and  Left.”  The  artist  had 
bought  a  fine  pair  of  plump  wdld  ducks  for  his  Thanksgiving 

1  Letter  from  La  Farge  to  Gustav  Kobbe,  published  in  the  New  York  Her¬ 
ald,  December  4,  1910. 


FLIGHT  OF  WILD  GEESE 
From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  Roland 
C.  Lincoln,  Boston.  Photograph  by  Baldwin  Coolidge 


RIGHT  AXD  LEFT 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Randal 
Morga  n ,  Philadelph  ia 


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INCIDENTS  OF  THE  LAST  YEARS  245 


dinner.  He  did  not  intend  to  make  a  painting  of  them,  but 
their  plumage  was  so  handsome,  he  was  tempted ;  and  before 
he  got  through  with  them  his  Thanksgiving  dinner  was 
spoiled.  It  may  be  a  subject  of  speculation  how  he  came  to 
show  the  ducks  in  the  air,  above  the  waves,  falling,  as  if  just 
mortally  wounded  by  a  hunter.  He  employed  his  usual  care¬ 
ful  methods  of  observation  in  this  case.  He  went  out,  day 
after  day,  in  a  boat,  with  a  man  who  was  armed  with  a 
double-barreled  shotgun,  and  studied  the  positions  and 
movements  of  the  birds  when  they  were  shot.  He  had  no 
title  for  the  picture.  It  was  sent  to  Knoedler  &  Company’s 
gallery  in  New  York  ;  a  sportsman  came  in,  caught  a  glimpse 
of  the  picture,  and  at  once  cried  out :  “  Right  and  left !  ”  — 
admiring,  not  so  much  the  picture  per  se,  as  the  skill  of  the 
hunter  who  could  bring  down  a  bird  with  each  barrel  of  his 
double-barreled  shotgun  in  quick  succession.  So  the  work 
was  christened.  It  was  bought  by  Mr.  Randal  Morgan,  who 
loaned  it  for  exhibition  at  the  one  hundred  and  fifth  annual 
exhibition  of  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts  in 
Philadelphia,  January  to  March,  1910. 

What  proved  to  be  his  last  oil  painting  was  a  canvas 
called  “Driftwood,”  painted  in  the  fall  of  1909.  It  represents 
some  wood  drifting  to  the  shore,  a  man  in  oilskins  and  sou’¬ 
wester  going  out  into  the  water  with  a  rope  to  secure  it. 
This  picture,  twenty-eight  by  twenty-four  inches  in  dimen¬ 
sions,  was  sent  to  Knoedler  &  Company,  New  York,  in 
November,  1909,  and  was  sold  to  Mr.  Frank  L.  Babbott  of 
Brooklyn. 

The  “Northeaster,”  dated  1895,  was  given  to  the  Metro¬ 
politan  Museum  of  Art,  New  York,  by  Mr.  George  A.  Hearn, 
in  1910.  The  gift  was  announced  in  the  May  issue  of  the 
“  Bulletin  ”  of  the  Museum,  which  contained  an  excellent  re- 


246 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


production  of  the  canvas,  and  alluded  to  the  original  as  “  the 
magnificent  ‘  Northeaster,’  by  Winslow  Homer,  considered  by 
many  to  be  his  best  work.”  There  are  so  many  of  his  best 
works  ! 

“  Early  Morning,”  belonging  to  Mr.  W.  K.  Bixby  of  St. 
Louis,  Missouri,  was  exhibited  at  the  fifth  annual  exhibition 
of  selected  paintings  by  American  artists,  in  the  Albright  Art 
Gallery,  Buffalo,  New  York,  May  n  to  September  i,  1910. 
At  the  summer  exhibition  of  the  Worcester  Art  Museum,  the 
“Flight  of  Wild  Geese,”  belonging  to  the  collection  of  Mrs. 
Roland  C.  Lincoln  of  Boston,  was  exhibited.  Mrs.  Lincoln 
informs  me  that  the  original  title  of  this  picture  was  “At  the 
Foot  of  the  Lighthouse,”  and  she  thinks  that  this  tide  gives 
the  true  explanation  of  the  death  of  the  birds  in  the  fore¬ 
ground. 

Three  of  Homer’s  oil  paintings  were  shown  at  the  Exhi¬ 
bition  of  American  Art  held  at  Berlin  and  Munich  in  1910. 
In  a  paper  on  “American  Paintings  in  Germany,”  C.  Lewis 
Hind,  writing  in  “  The  International  Studio  ”  for  September, 
1910,  discusses  this  exhibition,  and  asks :  “  Can  we  find  .  .  . 
any  signs  of  a  national  American  art  ?  ”  And  his  answer  is 
Winslow  Homer.  “This  old  master,”  says  Mr.  Hind,  “who 
is  still  with  us — for  it  is  as  a  master  that  I  always  regard 
Winslow  Homer  —  lives,  I  believe,  in  retirement  on  the  coast 
of  Maine.  I  read  that  in  daily  companionship  with  the  ocean 
he  has  led  for  many  years  a  solitary  life  upon  a  spit  of  coast 
near  Scarborough.  Goethe  says  somewhere  that  talent  is 
nurtured  in  a  crowd,  genius  in  solitude.  And  I  think  it  must 
be  due  to  the  solitude  in  which  Winslow  Homer  has  lived, 
surrounded  by  the  elemental  forces  of  nature,  that  he  has  pro¬ 
duced  in  his  big,  comprehensive  work  something  that  seems 
to  me  entirely  personal  and  entirely  American.  No  one  who 


INCIDENTS  OF  THE  LAST  YEARS  247 


has  studied  his  pictures  can  doubt  that  they  are  characteris¬ 
tically  spiritually  as  well  as  physically  American  and  that  they 
could  have  been  painted  nowhere  but  in  America.  His  finest 
picture,  ‘  Cannon  Rock,’  is  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum,  New 
York,  but  this  exhibition  included  his  powerful  and  realistic 
‘  Gulf  Stream  ’  (also  called  ‘  The  Castaway  ’),  as  vigorous  in 
color  as  in  design,  a  result  of  his  visit  to  the  West  Indies ; 
his  marine,  with  the  massive  timbers  of  a  wreck  in  the  fore¬ 
ground,  and  his  strong  and  simple  ‘Lookout-Man’  sending 
his  cry  of  ‘All ’s  Well’  through  the  night.  .  .  .” 

The  revelations  of  alleged  rascality  in  regard  to  the  coun¬ 
terfeiting  and  retouching  of  paintings  by  Homer  Martin  and 
George  Inness  at  the  time  of  the  trial  of  the  case  of  Evans 
versus  Clausen  in  New  York  in  1910  made  a  painful  im¬ 
pression  on  Winslow  Homer,  who  had  an  almost  morbid 
dread  of  something  of  the  same  sort  happening  to  his  own 
works.  A  New  York  collector  who  owned  two  of  Homers 
paintings  wrote  to  him  saying  that  they  were  in  need  of 
attention,  and  asking  him  if  he  would  be  willing  to  examine 
them  and  do  whatever  was  necessary  to  them.  He  consented, 
and  the  pictures  were  sent  to  him  at  Prout’s  Neck.  On  ex¬ 
amining  them,  he  discovered  that  one  of  them  had  been  re¬ 
touched  by  some  one.  He  was  much  displeased,  naturally,  and 
sent  that  picture  back  to  the  owner,  telling  him  that  it  had 
been  tampered  with,  and  declining  to  touch  it.  The  other  pic¬ 
ture,  which  had  not  been  retouched,  needed  some  slight  care, 
and  after  attending  to  it,  he  returned  it  in  good  condition. 

“Below  Zero,”  painted  in  1894,  was  exhibited  at  the  Na¬ 
tional  Academy  of  Design  in  1910;  and  later  in  the  same 
year  it  was  exhibited  at  the  Art  Institute  of  Chicago.  It  be¬ 
longed  at  that  time  to  the  collection  of  Mr.  F.  P.  Moore  of 
New  York. 


248 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


Mr.  William  Macbeth,  the  picture  dealer,  made  a  visit  to 
Homer  in  the  month  of  August,  1910,  and  gives  this  pleasant 
account  of  it :  — 

“  I  shall  always  cherish  the  memory  of  a  very  delightful 
day  spent  as  the  guest  of  the  late  Winslow  Homer  towards  the 
end  of  August.  What  proved  to  be  his  last  illness  had  already 
laid  its  grip  upon  him,  but  in  spite  of  pain  he  insisted  on  giv¬ 
ing  himself  to  me,  and  together  we  roamed  over  his  Prout’s 
Neck  possessions,  with  their  many  wonderful  views  far  and 
near.  He  found  an  excuse  for  going  to  the  farthest  point  in 
order  to  cut  out  some  branches  of  shrubbery  where  insects 
were  playing  havoc  on  the  grounds  of  one  of  his  tenants. 
Girt  with  a  leather  belt,  in  which  he  carried  a  formidable 
pruning  blade,  he  was  well  prepared  for  an  even  more  seri¬ 
ous  fray.  ‘From  this  point  I  painted  “The  Fox  Hunt,”  from 
over  there  “  The  Undertow,”  ’  and  so  on,  pointing  to  the 
scene  of  many  a  familiar  canvas.  Several  times  in  years  past 
he  had  allowed  me  to  possess  quite  a  number  of  his  splendid 
charcoal  drawings,  and  although  I  said  not  a  word  about 
business,  he  knew  I  was  always  greedy  for  more.  So,  after 
luncheon,  when  he  had  asked  for  time  to  put  his  inner  sanc¬ 
tum  to  rights,  he  went  over  all  his  portfolios  in  a  vain  effort 
to  find  sketches  he  would  care  to  have  seen.  ‘  No,’  he  said, 
after  the  last  portfolio  was  closed,  ‘  you  have  had  them  all.’ 
There  were  a  few  unframed  watercolors  and  perhaps  a  dozen 
others,  framed  and  on  his  walls,  that  stirred  and  delighted  me 
beyond  measure.  He  told  me  of  their  expected  destination, 
and  I  knew  that  he  would  never  part  with  them  during  his 
lifetime.  He  knew  that  his  work  was  over,  and,  indeed,  he 
had  voluntarily  abandoned  it  years  before.  He  was  suffi¬ 
ciently  discerning  to  realize  that  he  could  not  keep  up  to  his 
highest-water  mark  reached  a  few  years  ago,  and  he  was  de- 


ON  A  LEE  SHORE 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Rhode  Island  School  of  Design,  Providence,  Rhode  Island 


3H0H--:  3.3.A  A  MO 


:•  '  V'  v:V'  .  -W.;,  Swmfcmy*  -A\  Vvo  asVi  wm"^ 

^r.  v  A.  .A:  o’vkTO^  v  \o  \oosbo  b«o\'6l.'j'r.oA?SL  ••; 

. 

■ 


INCIDENTS  OF  THE  LAST  YEARS  249 


termined  that  no  inferior  work  should  survive  him.  So  there 
will  be  no  sketch  or  failure  to  be  dragged  out  to  hurt  his 
memory.  His  artistic  record  was  made  long  ago,  and  it  adds 
a  brilliant  chapter  to  the  annals  of  truly  American  art.” 

In  1909  I  had  written  to  Winslow  Homer,  enclosing  a  list 
of  no  less  than  fifty  questions  which  I  asked  him  to  answer 
at  his  leisure.  He  despatched  a  short  note  acknowledging 
the  receipt  of  my  letter  and  promising  to  answer  it  soon  ;  but 
as  he  had  not  done  so  a  year  later,  I  wrote  again  in  the  sum¬ 
mer  of  1910,  reminding  him  of  his  promise,  and  received  the 
following,  his  last  letter  to  me  :  — 

Scarboro,  Maine,  Aug ■  13,  1910. 

No  doubt,  as  you  say,  a  man  is  known  by  his  works.  That 
I  have  heard  at  many  a  funeral.  And  no  doubt  in  your 
thoughts  [it]  occurred  to  you  in  thinking  of  me.  Others  are 
thinking  the  same  thing.  One  is  the  Mutual  Life  Insurance 
Co.,  in  which  I  have  an  annuity.  But  I  will  beat  you  both. 

I  have  all  your  letters,  and  will  answer  all  your  questions 
in  time,  if you  live  long  enough. 

In  reply  to  your  recent  letter  I  will  say  that  I  was  in  Tyne¬ 
mouth  in  1881  and  1882,  and  worked  there. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Winslow  Homer. 

To  W.  H.  Downes. 

In  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  the  grim  humor  of  the 
allusion  to  the  insurance  company  and  the  would-be  bio¬ 
grapher,  and  the  defiant  prophecy,  “  I  will  beat  you  both,” 
become  tragic.  Alas  I  my  questions  were  never  answered. 


CHAPTER  XIX 


HOMER’S  DEATH 
1910.  JE tat.  74 

The  Last  Sickness  —  Heart  Failure  —  A  Glorious  Passing — The  Funeral 
—  Burial  Place  at  Mount  Auburn  —  His  Will  —  The  Memorial  Exhibitions 
of  1 91 1  in  New  York  and  Boston —  The  Verdict. 

DURING  the  summer  of  1910  Homer  was  unmistak¬ 
ably  a  sick  man,  but  he  was  unwilling  to  give  up. 
He  appeared  to  resent  inquiries  after  his  health, 
and  when  his  own  people  tried  to  do  anything  for  him  he 
persisted  in  the  assertion  that  he  was  “  all  right,”  and  needed 
no  attention.  He  endured  his  pain  in  stoical  silence,  and  ut¬ 
tered  no  complaint.  His  strength  perceptibly  though  gradu¬ 
ally  failed,  and  the  traces  of  physical  and  mental  suffering 
became  more  palpable  as  the  days  passed,  until  at  last  there 
came  a  time  when  even  his  iron  spirit  succumbed  to  the 
strain,  and  he  was  forced  to  take  to  his  bed  and  to  submit 
to  those  ministrations  which  he  never  would  have  counte¬ 
nanced  save  in  the  extremity  of  his  helplessness.  His  brothers 
believed  that  he  would  be  more  comfortable  and  could  be 
better  cared  for  in  Arthur  B.  Homer’s  cottage  than  in  his 
own,  and  preparations  were  made  to  move  him  there ;  but 
when  he  found  that  something  of  the  sort  was  on  the  tapis 
he  asked  :  “  What  are  you  going  to  do  ?  ”  And  when  he  was 
told  of  the  plan,  he  said :  “  I  will  stay  in  my  own  house.” 

He  stayed.  There  followed  an  anxious  time  ;  yet,  presently, 
by  slow  degrees,  the  patient  seemed  to  be  gathering  strength 


HOMER’S  DEATH 


251 


again,  and  he  looked  forward  to  recovery,  with  something 
of  his  old  optimism,  speaking  of  his  plans  for  the  future,  and 
of  how  he  expected  to  enjoy  the  restoration  of  his  impaired 
eyesight.  He  even  planned  the  coming  winter’s  journey  to 
Florida  with  his  elder  brother,  and  the  bass-fishing  at  Enter¬ 
prise.  As  September  drew  towards  its  close,  with  the  short¬ 
ening  days,  he  would  chat  cheerfully  with  his  brothers,  and 
review,  in  his  half-serious  and  half-ironical  tone,  almost  for¬ 
gotten  episodes  of  yore,  and  the  adventures  of  the  happy 
fishing-grounds.  Even  with  these  loved  brothers  of  his  he 
maintained  a  certain  reticence,  a  reserve  which  was  so  much 
a  part  of  his  nature  that  he  did  not  know  how  to  overcome 
it.  In  these  days  they  took  hope ;  all  appeared  to  be  going 
on  well.  On  September  17,  his  nephew  Arthur  P.  Homer 
assured  me  that  he  was  convalescent,  and  that  he  had  sat  up 
in  bed  and  asked  “  how  soon  he  was  going  to  be  allowed  to 
have  a  drink  and  a  smoke.”  It  was  thought  that  he  could  be 
taken  up  to  West  Townsend,  Massachusetts,  there  to  recu¬ 
perate  in  the  bracing  air  of  the  hills,  at  his  elder  brother’s 
summer  home,  and  arrangements  had  been  partially  made 
for  a  special  car  for  his  accommodation  on  the  journey. 

The  real  or  apparent  improvement  continued  up  to  the 
morning  of  September  29,  when  a  sudden  and  alarming 
change  took  place,  and  it  was  evident  that  the  end  was  near. 
He  expired  at  half-past  one  o’clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the 
same  day,  Thursday,  the  twenty-ninth  day  of  September,  at 
the  age  of  seventy-four  years,  seven  months,  and  five  days. 

All  that  love  and  devotion  could  possibly  do  for  him  had 
been  done.  All  the  resources  of  medical  science  and  experi¬ 
ence,  the  services  of  two  excellent  trained  nurses,  the  con¬ 
stant  and  tender  care  of  his  nearest  and  dearest  relations 
were  his,  night  and  day,  to  the  end.  Both  of  his  brothers 


252  WINSLOW  HOMER 

were  with  him.  The  immediate  cause  of  death  was  heart 
failure.1 

An  artist  is  so  much  more  alive  than  most  men,  his  ceas¬ 
ing  to  live  seems  almost  like  a  violation  of  the  natural  order. 
He  has  a  special  right  to  live,  to  continue  living,  to  reap  the 
harvest  of  his  hard-won  experience.  No  one  else  can  carry¬ 
forward  his  work.  His  death  is  the  end  of  it.  And  Homer 
had  the  wish  to  live.  His  vitality  was  strong.  He  had  little 
or  no  experience  of  sickness.  He  could  not  realize  that  the 
end  of  life  was  at  hand.  As  it  was,  he  may  be  said  to  have 
died  “  in  the  harness.”  He  passed  away  in  the  little  studio 
at  Prout’s  Neck,  where  he  had  so  long  and  so  fruitfully 
labored,  and  it  was  a  most  fitting  place  for  him  to  die;  it  was 
like  a  soldier  dying  on  the  field  of  battle,  with  the  flag  wav¬ 
ing  over  him,  a  glorious  passing  of  the  brave,  indomitable 
spirit. 

A  laconic  despatch  sent  out  by  the  Associated  Press  from 
Portland  apprised  the  American  people  that  Winslow  Homer 
was  no  more,  and  the  news  was  received  with  unfeigned 
and  universal  sorrow  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  The 
dominant  note  in  all  the  hundreds  of  press  tributes  was  the 
American  quality  in  his  art :  that  had  become  already  so 

1  The  following  brief  history  of  the  case  is  from  a  letter  written  to  me  by  B. 
F.  Wentworth,  M.  D.,  Scarboro,  Maine,  under  date  of  January  23,  1911:  “I 
attended  Winslow  Homer  during  his  last  sickness.  He  came  to  my  office  with  a 
history  of  indigestion,  which  had  troubled  him  for  some  time,  and  two  days 
later  I  was  called  to  his  cottage  in  the  early  morning,  and  found  him  nearly  ex¬ 
hausted  from  the  loss  of  blood;  on  close  examination  found  he  had  had  a  rup¬ 
ture  of  a  blood-vessel  in  the  stomach  and  a  profuse  hemorrhage.  This  checked 
for  a  time,  and  then  another  hemorrhage;  following  the  second  attack,  he  had 
the  loss  of  eyesight  and  delirium  for  several  days;  then  his  mind  cleared,  but  his 
sight  was  lost.  He  made  a  gradual  gain  in  strength,  till  he  was  able  to  sit  up  a 
very  little;  and  suddenly,  very  much  to  our  surprise,  the  heart  grew  very  weak, 
and  he  died  of  collapse  in  a  few  hours.” 


EARLY  MORNING  AFTER  STORM  AT  SEA 
From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Air.  W.  K. 
Bixby,  St.  Louis 


A3 2  TA  M5IOT2  33T3A  OHIM30M  YJ3A3 

.  AL  Y  su>MS aauS  .......  . 

wwQi .y'VAS.'  ..  i 


_ 


HOMER’S  DEATH 


253 


widely  recognized.  It  was  proclaimed  by  many  writers  who, 
in  all  probability,  had  never  seen  any  of  his  works  in  the 
originals. 

The  funeral  took  place  at  Mount  Auburn  Cemetery,  Cam¬ 
bridge,  Massachusetts,  on  Monday,  October  3,  at  half-past 
two  o’clock.  It  was  a  perfect  October  day.  In  the  little  red- 
stone  Gothic  chapel  a  brief  service  was  conducted  by  the 
Reverend  Stanley  White  of  New  York,  a  personal  friend  of 
the  artist,  in  the  presence  of  a  small  company.  The  coffin 
was  covered  with  roses,  some  of  them  sent  by  the  American 
Academy  of  Arts  and  Letters.  There  was  no  music  and  no 
eulogy.  All  was  over  in  about  fifteen  minutes.  Following 
the  service,  the  body  was  cremated,  in  accordance  with 
Winslow  Homer’s  wishes,  and  the  ashes  were  laid  in  the 
family  lot. 

This  lot,  No.  563,  is  on  Lily  Path,  overlooking  Consecra¬ 
tion  Dell.  It  is  on  one  of  the  terraced  sides  of  a  rather  steep 
little  hill,  such  as  abound  in  Mount  Auburn,  and  it  is  a  lovely 
spot  in  summer,  as  there  are  fine  old  trees,  a  pond,  shrub¬ 
bery,  and  flowers.  The  Homer  lot  is  enclosed  by  a  low  red 
granite  boundary  mark,  polished  as  to  its  upper  surface,  and 
in  it  are  two  simple  markers  of  the  same  material,  indicating 
the  burial  places  of  Winslow  Homer’s  father  and  mother : 
“Charles  S.  Homer.  1809-1898.”  “Henrietta  M.  Homer. 
1809-1884.” 

Winslow  Homer’s  ashes  have  been  laid  alongside  the 
grave  of  his  mother,  in  the  southeast  corner  of  the  lot.  To 
reach  the  spot  from  the  North  Gate,  one  follows  Central 
Avenue  to  the  top  of  the  first  little  rise,  then,  bearing  to  the 
left,  Beech  Avenue,  Locust  Avenue,  and  Poplar  Avenue,  to 
Lily  Path.  This  is  not  far  from  the  geographical  centre  of 
the  cemetery. 


254 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


Among  all  the  celebrated  Americans  whose  names  are  as¬ 
sociated  with  this  city  of  the  dead,  there  are  but  few  paint¬ 
ers.  Felix  O.  C.  Darley,  I  think,  is  the  only  one  of  any  note 
besides  Winslow  Homer.  There  are  many  great  and  good 
men  buried  here  —  statesmen,  philanthropists,  men  of  let¬ 
ters,  churchmen,  scientists  —  I  recall  the  names  of  Lowell, 
Longfellow,  Holmes,  and  Aldrich,  of  Agassiz,  Gray,  and 
Shaler,  of  Motley,  Prescott,  and  Parkman,  of  Everett,  Choate, 
and  Sumner,  of  Channing  and  Brooks,  of  Story,  Howe,  Booth, 
Willis,  and  of  that  dear  old  friend  of  my  childhood  and  yours, 
Jacob  Abbott,  the  author  of  the  Rollo  books  ;  yes,  and  many 
more,  an  illustrious  roll ;  but  I  know  of  no  better  name  than 
Winslow  Homer. 

It  is  well  that  his  ashes  should  lie  in  this  hallowed  ground, 
so  beautiful  and  sequestered,  —  close  by  the  grave  of  his 
mother,  who  adored  him,  and  in  Cambridge,  the  home  of 
his  boyhood,  where  he  learned  to  love  the  country,  and  where 
his  great  Mother  Nature  took  him  to  her  heart  of  hearts  and 
taught  him  her  secrets. 

Winslow  Homer’s  will,  which  was  made  in  1884,  was  filed 
for  probate  at  Portland  in  October.  By  it  all  his  real  and 
personal  estate  was  left  unconditionally  to  his  brother  Charles 
S.  Homer  of  New  York.  The  will  was  handsomely  engrossed 
on  parchment,  but  this  was  not  done  by  the  artist  himself,  as 
was  erroneously  stated  at  the  time.  In  his  petition  for  ap¬ 
pointment  as  executor  Charles  S.  Homer  certified  that  the 
value  of  the  estate  was  not  more  than  forty  thousand  dol¬ 
lars.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Winslow  Homer  might 
have  left  a  considerably  larger  fortune  if  he  had  not  given 
away  so  much  money.  “  There  will  be  real  tears  shed  among 
the  fisherfolk  of  the  little  village  of  Prout’s  Neck,  for  they 
loved  him  as  a  brother,”  wrote  the  Portland  correspondent 


HOMER’S  DEATH 


2.55 


of  the  “Boston  American,”  October  i,  1910;  and  he  goes 
on  to  quote  the  simple,  heartfelt  benediction  of  the  Scarboro 
postmaster  when  he  heard  of  Homer’s  death  :  — 

“  He  was  a  good  man  and  a  good  citizen.  If  any  man 
had  a  setback  he  was  the  first  to  help  him.  He  was  good  to 
the  poor.  We  shall  miss  him  for  a  long  time  to  come.” 

The  truth  and  sincerity  of  this  tribute  are  self-evident.  Few 
eulogies,  though  couched  in  all  the  studied  and  resounding 
phrases  of  oratory  and  embellished  by  all  the  devices  of 
rhetoric,  could  match  in  true  eloquence  these  plain  words. 
The  memory  of  the  just  is  blessed. 

I  hope  that  the  laudable  purpose  of  Charles  S.  Homer  to 
keep  the  little  Prout’s  Neck  studio  as  a  memorial,  and  to 
throw  it  open  in  the  summer  months  to  artists  and  art  stu¬ 
dents  who  in  future  may  make  the  pilgrimage  to  Scarboro, 
may  be  found  feasible  and  may  be  carried  out ;  and  I  ven¬ 
ture  also  to  express  the  hope  that  the  generous  project  which 
he  has  under  consideration,  to  offer  to  several  of  the  leading 
art  schools  of  America  a  certain  number  of  Winslow  Homer’s 
studies  and  sketches,  now  in  his  possession  as  executor,  may 
be  met  with  the  cordial  welcome  and  encouragement  which 
it  deserves.  Such  sensible  and  unpretentious  memorials  as 
these  are  peculiarly  appropriate,  and  would,  no  doubt,  have 
been  approved  by  the  most  modest  of  artists.  It  is  pleasant 
to  think  that  in  the  days  to  come  there  will  be  many  a  young 
American  art  student  who  will  gladly  avail  himself  of  the 
privilege  of  visiting  the  Prout’s  Neck  studio,  and  who  in 
entering  it  will  uncover  his  head  in  instinctive  homage  to 
Homer,  remembering,  as  he  well  may,  that  the  strong,  silent, 
stern  man  who  lived,  worked,  and  died  in  this  place  dedi¬ 
cated  all  his  great  gifts  to  the  service  of  truth. 

The  two  cities  associated  with  the  artist’s  life,  Boston  and 


256 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


New  York,  the  one  his  birthplace,  the  other  his  home  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  vying  in  a  generous  rivalry  to  show 
their  appreciation,  made  haste  to  do  him  honor  in  the  winter 
of  1911,  by  the  opening  of  memorial  exhibitions  in  their  re¬ 
spective  art  museums.  These  events  took  place  simultane¬ 
ously,  the  New  York  exhibition  opening  on  Monday,  Febru¬ 
ary  6,  in  Gallery  XX  of  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art, 
and  the  Boston  exhibition  opening  on  the  following  day  in 
the  East  Gallery  of  the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts.  The  two  ex¬ 
hibitions  did  not  conflict  with  each  other,  though  it  was  com¬ 
monly  thought  that  they  might  have  been  consolidated  to 
advantage.  The  New  York  exhibition  contained  so  much  the 
greater  number  of  important  works,  especially  in  oil  paint¬ 
ings,  that  the  impression  it  gave  was  distinctly  more  weighty 
and  imposing  than  that  of  its  friendly  rival  in  Boston.  The 
New  York  exhibition  had  been  more  systematically  prepared 
for  and  more  carefully  planned  out  by  a  special  committee 
composed  of  officers  of  the  Metropolitan  Museum  and  repre¬ 
sentative  artists  and  collectors.  Of  this  committee  Mr.  John 
W.  Alexander,  president  of  the  National  Academy  of  Design, 
was  chairman,  and  with  him  were  associated  Mr.  Edward 
Robinson,  director  of  the  museum,  Mr.  Bryson  Burroughs, 
curator  of  paintings,  Mr.  Charles  S.  Homer,  the  artist’s 
brother,  Mr.  Daniel  C.  French,  the  sculptor,  Mr.  Roland  F. 
Knoedler,  the  picture  dealer,  Mr.  Charles  W.  Gould  and 
Mr.  George  A.  Hearn,  the  collectors,  and  eight  painters, 
namely,  Mr.  Edwin  H.  Blashfield,  Mr.  William  M.  Chase,  Mr. 
Kenyon  Cox,  Mr.  Thomas  W.  Dewing,  Mr.  Samuel  Isham, 
Mr.  Will  H.  Low,  Mr.  F.  D.  Millet,  and  Mr.  J.  Alden  Weir. 
From  all  the  available  material  this  distinguished  and  expe¬ 
rienced  body  of  men  selected  a  small  collection  of  fifty-two 
works,  which  admirably  represented  the  achievement  of  the 


KISSING  THE  MOON;  OR,  SUNSET  AND  MOON- 

RISE 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Dr.  Lewis  A . 
Stimson,  New  York 


'  T  )  7 

-ZOOM  Q'AA  T3aZ  j3  |£0  ;/!OOM  3HT  D/xI22DI 

afem 

.Z  ?i<3  \q  -Z  7  '  ■  '  VZ 

•JZZI  ^ 


HOMER’S  DEATH 


257 


artist,  and,  on  the  whole,  satisfactorily  illustrated  the  various 
periods  and  phases  of  his  art.  There  was  no  attempt  to 
make  the  collection  complete,  comprehensive,  exhaustive ; 
and  probably  this  was  wise.  It  was  a  choice  group,  and  in 
the  discrimination  exercised  by  the  committee  the  painter 
was  more  intelligently  honored  than  he  would  have  been  by 
a  larger,  more  miscellaneous  exhibition,  in  which  there  must 
have  been  naturally  some  repetition,  redundancy,  and,  pos¬ 
sibly,  an  element  of  second-best,  which  would  have  been  alto¬ 
gether  repugnant  to  his  own  ideals. 

A  sufficient  notion  of  his  early  work  in  oils  was  conveyed 
by  “The  Bright  Side”  of  1865,  “Snap  the  Whip”  of  1872, 
“  The  Visit  from  the  Old  Mistress  ”  of  1876,  and  “  The  Camp 
Fire”  of  1880.  The  general  opinion  in  New  York  seemed  to 
be  that  these  early  pictures  were  relatively  meagre,  and, 
in  some  cases,  almost  commonplace.  A  picture  dealer  of 
my  acquaintance,  standing  in  front  of  “  Snap  the  Whip,” 
shrugged  his  shoulders,  and  said  it  reminded  him  of  Prang’s 
chromo-lithographs.  This  is  like  casting  contempt  upon  some 
good  and  beloved  old  melody  because  it  has  been  played  by 
the  street  hand-organs.  On  my  pointing  out  some  of  the  in¬ 
teresting  and  delightful  things  in  the  picture,  my  friend  the 
dealer  retorted,  “Oh,  you  are  prejudiced.  Everything  from 
Homer’s  hand  looks  fine  to  you.”  There  was  truth  in  this 
accusation :  I  had  to  admit  the  soft  impeachment.  But  there 
are  many  who  share  my  sentiment  —  and  that  it  is  a  matter 
of  sentiment  I  frankly  confess  also.  Everything  from  the 
hand  of  a  great  artist  has  something  of  his  mind  and  tem¬ 
perament  in  it.  Mr.  Huneker,  in  “The  Sun,”  speaking  of 
Homer’s  departure  from  New  York  and  his  settlement  at 
Prout’s  Neck,  expressed  the  view  that  to  paint  as  he  had 
been  painting  up  to  that  time  would  have  been  artistic  stag- 


258 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


nation,  if  not  artistic  death.  This  is  a  hazardous  guess  as  to 
what  might  have  been  ;  but  I  do  not  believe  anything  of  the 
kind.  Of  course  Homer  would  never  have  been  content  to 
paint  as  he  had  been  painting,  but  he  was  an  original  force 
in  art  from  the  first,  and  the  germs  of  his  mature  master- 
works  were  living  in  those  despised  early  pictures. 

Then  followed,  in  chronological  sequence,  the  “Early 
Evening,”  begun  in  Tynemouth  in  1881  and  completed  and 
dated  as  late  as  1907  in  Scarboro ;  the  “Banks  Fishermen” 
(or  “The  Herring  Net  ”)  of  1885;  “  Undertow ”  and  “ Eight 
Bells”  of  1886;  “Coast  in  Winter”  and  “Sunlight  on 
the  Coast  ”of  1890  ;  the  glorious  “  West  Wind  ”  of  1891  ;  the 
“Hound  and  Hunter”  of  1892  ;  “The  Fox  Hunt”  and  the 
“World’s  Columbian  Exposition  —  the  Fountain  at  Night” 
of  1893  ;  “Moonlight,  Wood  Island  Light”  and  “The  Fisher 
Girl”  of  1894;  “Watching  the  Breakers:  A  High  Sea,” 
“Sunset,  Saco  Bay  —  The  Coming  Storm,”  and  the  famous 
“Maine  Coast”  of  1896;  “The  Gulf  Stream”  of  1899; 
“Kissing  the  Moon”  of  1904;  “Cape  Trinity,  Saguenay 
River,  Moonlight”  and  “Right  and  Left”  of  1909;  and 
the  unfinished  picture  of  “  Shooting  the  Rapids,  Saguenay 
River”  of  1910.  These  twenty-four  oil  paintings  formed  a 
fairly  complete  array  of  the  representative  works  of  forty-five 
years.  One  would  have  been  glad  to  see  a  few  others  which 
were  missing,  such  as  the  “  Prisoners  from  the  Front,”  which 
it  was  impossible  to  obtain  at  the  time,  “  The  Life  Line,”  and 
three  of  the  paintings  in  the  Boston  exhibition,  —  “The  Fog 
Warning,”  “The  Lookout — All’s  Well,”  and  “On  a  Lee 
Shore,” — but,  as  it  was,  the  showing  was  enough  to  give 
assurance  of  a  man. 

The  oil  paintings  were  supplemented  by  a  magnificent  col¬ 
lection  of  twenty-eight  watercolors.  The  earliest  of  these  were 


HOMER’S  DEATH 


259 


the  “  Berry  Pickers  ”  and  “  Boys  Wading  ”  of  1873,  charming 
in  their  precision  of  style.  A  very  interesting  period  of  work 
in  this  medium  was  represented  by  the  “  Shepherdess  ”  and 
“  Hillside  ”  of  1878.  From  that  phase  of  rustic  and  juvenile 
life  we  were  led  on  to  the  transitional  Tynemouth  series  of 
1881  and  1882,  which  marked  the  beginning  of  a  distinct 
development  in  our  artist's  career  as  a  watercolorist.  This 
prolific  phase  was  exemplified  by  six  dramatic  works,  which 
included  “  A  Voice  from  the  Cliffs,”  “Watching  the  Tem¬ 
pest,”  and  “  The  Perils  of  the  Sea.”  The  watercolor  collec¬ 
tion  culminated  in  the  superb  series  of  southern  subjects  from 
the  Bahamas,  Bermuda,  Florida,  and  Key  West,  which  Homer 
had  retained  for  himself  for  some  years  in  his  Prout’s  Xeck 
studio  and  which  he  considered  his  best  work.  From  them 
the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  had  made  its  choice  of  a 
dozen  works  for  its  permanent  collection,  an  amazing  group 
for  splendor  of  tropical  color,  luminosity,  and  individuality. 
They  are  wonderful,  these  tropical  scenes,  perhaps  the  most 
wonderful  things  that  Homer  ever  produced.  F or  pure  beauty 
of  color  and  light  they  have  never  been  surpassed,  and  it  is 
hard  to  believe  that  they  ever  can  be. 

The  twelve  works  acquired  by  the  Metropolitan  Museum 
are  the  “Natural  Bridge,  Nassau,”  “Palm  Tree,  Nassau,” 
“Tornado,  Bahamas,”  “A  Wall,  Nassau,”  “Bermuda,” 
“  Flower  Garden  and  Bungalow,”  “  Shore  and  Surf,  Nassau,” 
“The  Bather,”  “Sloop,  Bermuda,”  “ The  Pioneer,”  “Taking 
on  Wet  Provisions,”  and  “Fishing  Boats,  Key  West.”  Sev¬ 
eral  of  these  are  not  dated,  but  those  which  bear  dates  are 
of  1898,  1899,  1900,  and  1903  ;  the  similarity  of  style  would 
go  to  show  that  all  of  the  tropical  scenes  belong  to  this  same 
period.  The  museum  made  an  excellent  selection,  and  Homer 
on  his  part  manifested  his  customary  sagacity  in  setting 


26o 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


aside  these  works  for  the  permanent  collection  of  the  leading 
art  institution  in  America.  With  the  five  oil  paintings  owned 
by  the  Metropolitan  Museum,  they  form  a  splendid  monu¬ 
ment  to  his  genius. 

Drawing  freely  upon  the  substance  of  the  descriptive  notes 
in  the  catalogue  of  the  memorial  exhibition  in  New  York,  by 
permission  of  the  Metropolitan  Museum,  I  will  briefly  outline 
the  design  and  character  of  these  twelve  watercolors.  “  The 
Natural  Bridge,  Nassau,”  depicts  a  ledge  of  white  shale  which 
extends  across  the  foreground,  with  the  blue  sea  beyond.  In 
the  foreground,  at  the  left,  is  a  natural  arch  in  the  rock,  and 
at  the  right  a  soldier  in  a  red  uniform  lies  prone  on  the 
ground  looking  over  a  precipice.  “  Palm  Tree,  Nassau,” 
represents  a  lofty  cocoa  palm  bent  by  the  wind,  and  several 
smaller  palms  beyond.  In  the  background  is  a  deep  blue 
sea,  a  narrow  strip  of  land,  and  a  white  light-house.  “Tor¬ 
nado,  Bahamas,”  shows  a  group  of  house-tops,  above  which 
rise  cocoa  palms  swaying  in  the  gale.  At  the  left  is  a  glimpse 
of  dull  green  sea;  heavy  storm  clouds  fill  the  sky.  “A  Wall, 
Nassau  ”  (1898),  shows  a  white  plastered  wall  with  a  gate¬ 
way  ;  bright  scarlet  flowers  growing  on  the  farther  side, 
which  look  like  poinsettias,  show  above  the  wall.  The  blue 
sea,  with  a  sail-boat,  may  be  seen  in  the  distance.  “  Bermuda  ” 
( 1 899)  is  thus  described  in  the  catalogue :  “  On  the  white  beach 
in  the  immediate  foreground  are  three  rusty  cannons ;  deep 
blue  sea  beyond.  A  sail-boat,  manned  by  two  negroes,  is  near 
the  shore,  and  several  other  vessels  are  farther  out.  In  the 
distance  is  a  line  of  brown  shore.”  The  “Flower  Garden  and 
Bungalow,”  painted  in  Bermuda  in  1899,  has  red  and  yellow 
flowers  and  palm-trees  in  the  foreground  ;  a  yellow  bunga¬ 
low  with  a  white  roof  and  chimney  stands  by  the  side  of  a 
blue  bay,  the  shore  of  which  is  dotted  at  the  right  by  white 


EARLY  EVENING 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Charles  L. 
Freer,  Detroit 


■ 


0MF/13V3  YJ3A3 

•3.  tahoiO  .'\1L  \o  «oVV-'i\\o*>  avU  \\'\  5,m\nu><\  Vso  sjU 

. 


HOMER’S  DEATH 


261 


buildings.  “Shore  and  Surf,  Nassau”  (1899),  depicts  a  stony 
beach  in  the  foreground,  beyond  which  are  green  waves  and 
surf  and  floating  brown  seaweed ;  at  the  left  is  a  white  light¬ 
house,  and  on  the  horizon,  where  the  water  is  deep  blue,  is 
a  large  steamer.  “The  Bather,”  painted  in  Nassau  in  1899, 
represents  a  negro  standing  waist-deep  in  the  blue  water. 
At  the  left,  farther  back,  is  another  negro  with  his  head  and 
shoulders  only  showing  above  the  water.  On  the  shore  in 
the  distance  at  the  right  is  a  pavilion  decorated  with  flags. 
“  Sloop,  Bermuda,”  is  a  picture  of  a  white  sloop  seen  from 
the  stern,  where  a  reddish  row-boat  is  tied.  The  water  is 
green  and  blue.  Aboard  the  sloop  are  two  negroes.  The  sails 
hang  in  wind-blown  swirls.  Clothes  are  hung  out  to  dry  on 
the  boom.  There  is  a  small  boat  at  the  right,  and  a  strip  of 
brown  shore  at  the  horizon.  “The  Pioneer,”  the  only  Adi- 
rondacks  motive  in  this  group,  has  been  described  already. 
“Taking  in  Wet  Provisions,”  painted  at  Key  West  in  1903, 
is  one  of  the  most  brilliant  of  all  the  brilliant  tropical  scenes. 
A  small  boat  is  fastened  near  the  bow  of  a  schooner,  and  a 
keg  is  being  hoisted  on  board  by  means  of  a.  block  and  tackle 
worked  by  a  man  in  a  red  shirt  near  the  foremast.  A  man  in 
the  small  boat  steadies  the  keg,  and  a  third  sailor  is  on  the 
farther  side  of  the  schooner.  The  water  is  light  blue-green, 
and  in  the  distance,  at  the  left,  is  a  small  sail-boat.  “  Fishing 
Boats,  Key  West  ”  (1903),  is  another  dazzlingflood  of  southern 
sunlight.  A  white  sloop  with  the  name  Lizzie  painted  on  the 
side,  near  the  bow,  is  in  the  foreground  at  the  right.  A  sailor 
wearing  a  red  shirt  is  seen  on  the  deck.  At  the  left  is  a  part 
of  another  boat  which  casts  a  dark  green  reflection  on  the 
light  blue-green  water. 

An  excellent  descriptive  catalogue  was  prepared  for  the 
New  York  exhibition,  which  gave  a  brief  account  of  the 


262 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


artist’s  life,  a  list  of  his  works  in  public  collections,  a  biblio¬ 
graphy,  and  an  index.  There  were  some  slight  errors  in  the 
biographical  sketch,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  statement  that 
after  1868  Homer  “  remained  in  New  York  only  a  short  time, 
and  during  the  rest  of  his  life  came  to  this  city  only  for  brief 
visits,”  which  is  rather  wide  of  the  mark  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  New  York  was  his  home  for  twenty-five  years.  The  dates 
are  incorrect  in  several  instances.  He  was  not  sixteen,  but 
nineteen,  years  of  age  when  he  was  apprenticed  to  Bufford, 
the  lithographer,  in  Boston  ;  the  years  that  he  spent  in  Eng¬ 
land  were  1881  and  1882  ;  and,  finally,  it  was  in  1884,  not  in 
1890,  that  he  settled  in  Scarboro.  These  lapses  are  matters 
of  no  very  great  consequence  ;  on  the  other  hand  this  cata¬ 
logue  is  the  first  specimen  of  Homeriana  to  give  the  correct 
date  of  the  first  exhibition  of  “Prisoners  from  the  Front”  — 
1 866. 

The  most  elaborate  and  thoughtful  review  of  the  exhibition 
was  that  written  for  the  “  Evening  Post  ”  of  March  4  by  Frank 
Jewett  Mather,  junior.  This  critic  professed  great  admiration 
for  Homer’s  work,  but  found  the  “absence  of  formulas”  in 
his  art  baffling.  It  seemed  to  him  impossible  that  “so  many 
fine  works  by  one  hand  should  be  so  discordant.”  Homer 
“faces  nature  with  a  kind  of  ruthless  impersonality.”  He 
“repels  while  he  attracts,”  is  “distinguished  in  virtue  of  a 
magnificent  commonness  and  a  wilfully  prosaic  probity.”  If 
he  bulks  large  to-day,  it  is  because  of  “  the  debilitated  estate 
of  American  painting  during  his  lifetime.”  He  “seems  to 
have  had  but  little  music  in  his  soul,  but  he  had  a  blunt  and 
forceful  way  of  saying  what  he  meant.”  A  more  fortunate  age, 
that  has  arrived  at  what  Mr.  Mather  calls  vital  formulas,  “  may 
perhaps  find  his  work  a  shade  anarchical,  brusque,  and  in¬ 
complete.”  In  a  word,  strong  and  original  as  he  was,  Mr. 


HOMER’S  DEATH  263 

Mather  longs  to  have  him  something  different.  There  is  much 
that  is  interesting  and  suggestive  in  his  review,  but  the  note 
of  personal  sympathy  with  the  work  is  wanting.  On  the 
whole,  in  spite  of  some  expressions  of  admiration  which  seem 
to  have  been  extorted  from  the  writer  in  spite  of  himself,  his 
article  leaves  the  impression  of  a  peculiar  lack  of  the  inti¬ 
mate  understanding  that  can  only  be  attained  through  sheer 
love  and  enthusiasm.  It  is  a  case  of  — 

I  do  not  love  thee.  Doctor  Fell. 

The  reason  why  I  cannot  tell; 

But  this  alone  I  know  full  well, 

I  do  not  love  thee.  Doctor  Fell. 

It  is  now  time  to  turn  to  the  Boston  memorial  exhibition. 
This  offered  an  interesting  contrast  to  the  New  York  ex¬ 
hibition,  in  that  watercolors  predominated  in  numbers.  Out  of 
the  total  of  seventy  works,  eight  were  oil  paintings,  ten  were 
drawings,  and  fifty-two  were  watercolors.  All  the  loans  came 
from  Boston  and  its  vicinity.  The  Rhode  Island  School  of 
Design,  Providence,  lent  its  masterpiece,  “  On  a  Lee  Shore,” 
which  was  given  the  place  of  honor  on  the  north  wall.  With 
this,  the  other  oil  paintings  were  “The  Fog  Warning”  and 
“The  Lookout  — All’s  Well,”  belonging  to  the  permanent 
collection  of  the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts  ;  the  “  Flight  of  Wild 
Geese,”  belonging  to  Mrs.  Roland  C.  Lincoln ;  the  “  Hunts¬ 
man  and  Dogs,”  belonging  to  Mrs.  Bancel  La  Farge ;  the 
“  Zouaves  Pitching  Quoits,”  belonging  to  Mr.  Frederic  H. 
Curtiss;  “  Mount  Washington,”  belonging  to  Mrs.  W.  H.  S. 
Pearce ;  and  a  small  study  of  a  young  girl,  belonging  to  Mr. 
Arthur  B.  Homer.  The  array  of  fifty-odd  watercolors  com¬ 
prised  good  examples  of  all  periods  and  of  all  the  geogra¬ 
phical  phases  of  the  painter’s  activities,  from  his  pictures  of 
children  and  negroes  of  the  seventies,  his  Gloucester  series 


264 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


of  1880,  the  Tynemouth  series  of  1881  and  1882,  the  Bahamas 
and  Santiago  de  Cuba  series  of  1885  and  later,  and  the  Adi¬ 
rondack^  and  Canadian  subjects  of  recent  years,  with  a  few 
marine  pieces  from  Prout’s  Neck.  There  was  no  catalogue, 
and  in  the  appendix  I  give  a  list  of  the  titles  and  names  of 
owners  compiled  by  myself  as  a  matter  of  record.  The  pro¬ 
digious  ease  and  simplicity  of  the  artist’s  watercolor  method, 
the  blended  delicacy  and  strength  of  his  style,  its  sturdy 
individuality  and  distinction,  the  extraordinary  carrying 
power  of  his  well-defined  masses  and  planes,  with  those 
constantly  recurring  felicities  of  the  most  unexpected  char¬ 
acter  which  form  such  a  fascinating  subject  for  study,  were 
more  than  ever  manifest  in  this  collection.  In  this  elusive 
medium  he  was  perfectly  at  home  and  expressed  himself 
with  stimulating  directness  and  pungency.  Prior  to  the  Tyne¬ 
mouth  watercolors  the  dominant  note  is  of  an  exquisite 
delicacy  of  detail,  but  after  that  the  manner  gradually 
broadens  and  becomes  more  emphatic,  sweeping,  and  dra¬ 
matic,  until  in  the  Adirondacks  and  Province  of  Quebec 
subjects  of  the  nineties  and  later  we  mark  the  full  develop¬ 
ment  of  that  rapid,  bold,  loose,  and  authoritative  style  in 
which  the  essentials  of  the  subject  are,  as  it  were,  flung  upon 
the  paper  with  all  the  abandon  and  freedom  of  a  complete 
master  of  the  art,  sure  of  himself,  and  exulting  in  his  strength, 
unequaled  and  alone  in  the  capacity  of  forcible  and  succinct 
expression. 

The  collection  revealed  the  immense  variety  and  scope  of 
his  subject-matter.  The  “  Children  Wading  at  Gloucester,” 
“Girl  with  Letter,”  “  Going  Berrying,”  “  Children  and  Sail¬ 
boat,”  “  The  Green  Dory,”  “  Sailing  Dories,”  and  the  two 
little  figure  subjects  of  1878,  matched  in  charm  and  naivete 
the  Houghton  Farm  and  Gloucester  watercolors  of  Mrs. 


DRIFTWOOD 

From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Frank  L. 
Babbott,'  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 


CAPE  TRINITY,  SAGUENAY  RIVER 
From  the  oil  painting  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Burton 
Mansfield,  New  Haven,  Connecticut 


••O'  "  o  a  .£  : 

. 

CIOOWT3I5K! 

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.3  .VI  ,K'<Woo^S.' (\Xo&3  aS. 

SYimR  YAY3UDAS  ,YTI7iI£T.  3SAD  .. 

5  ,4fv  \o  uYm'Yo  S\i  -O  vU'mUA  iso  Y" 
XsniVmmoi  , small  waVl  (lbs\zs?aifv 


HOMER’S  DEATH 


265 


Lawson  Valentine’s  collection  in  the  New  York  exhibition. 
In  the  “Wreck  off  the  English  Coast”  of  1881,  which  showed 
the  Tynemouth  life-saving  crew  going  to  the  rescue  of  the 
crew  of  the  ship  Iron  Crown,  October  25,  1881  (one  of  the 
least  meritorious  of  his  marine  pieces),  we  saw  the  dawning 
inspiration  of  the  long  suite  of  finely  conceived  and  highly 
dramatic  shipwreck  themes  of  that  period,  which  was  also 
illustrated  by  the  “  Fisherwomen,  English  Coast,”  “  An  After¬ 
glow,”  “  Storm  on  the  English  Coast,”  “  Three  Fishermen 
and  Girl,”  “  Fishermen’s  Wives,”  and  the  “  Mouth  of  the 
Tyne.”  The  beauty  and  romance  of  the  tropics,  as  shown  in 
the  Nassau  and  South  Coast  of  Cuba  motives,  were  richly 
set  forth  in  “  The  Road  in  Nassau,”  the  “  Spanish  Club  ”  in 
Santiago,  “Street  in  Santiago  de  Cuba,”  “Diver,  Nassau,” 
and  “  Government  Building.”  The  grave  and  melancholy 
nobility  of  the  northern  forests  and  mountains  and  streams 
and  the  wild  rush  of  the  torrents  and  rapids  were  pictured 
in  a  great  series  of  wilderness  compositions,  among  which  I 
need  mention  only  the  “  Shooting  Rapids,”  “  Canoes  in 
Rapids,”  “Wild  Ducks,”  “Fishing,”  “The Portage,”  “Indian 
Camp,”  “Three  Men  in  a  Canoe,”  “Guide,”  “Men  in  Canoe,” 
“Adirondacks,”  etc. 

“  In  these  later  watercolors,”  wrote  Mr.  A.  J.  Philpott,  in 
the  Boston  “Globe,”  February  13,  1911,  “there  is  none  of 
the  restraint  or  indecision  which  this  medium  so  often  im¬ 
poses  on  the  artist.  He  was  superior  to  all  technical  difficul¬ 
ties  in  these  sketches.  They  are  the  work  of  a  master.”  The 
same  writer  pointed  out  that  Homer  was  able  to  synthesize 
as  no  other  man  in  his  day  “the  best  picturesque  feeling  in 
the  American  people  —  the  large  things  in  which  life  and 
nature  met  and  which  appealed  to  the  imagination.”  A  pretty 
touch  was  that  in  Mr.  Philpott’s  comment  on  the  black-and- 


266 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


white  drawings  in  this  collection :  “  There  is  a  little  sketch 
here  of  Gloucester  harbor  in  pencil  outline  with  the  high 
lights  on  sails,  water,  foreground,  and  sky  in  Chinese  white. 
It  is  a  simple  little  sketch,  yet  full  of  suggestion.  .  .  .  The 
three  boys  in  the  foreground,  lying  at  full  length  on  the 
grass,  kicking  up  their  bare  heels  and  looking  out  on  the 
scene,  give  this  sketch  just  that  human,  that  imaginative 
touch  that  Homer  always  seemed  to  regard  as  vital  to  the 
impression  he  wished  to  convey.  He  is  looking  on  that  mov¬ 
ing  panorama  of  fishing  schooners  going  to  and  coming  from 
the  Banks  through  the  eyes,  the  thoughts,  and  the  imagina¬ 
tion  of  those  three  boys.” 

In  delivering  an  informal  address  in  the  gallery,  on  Sun¬ 
day  afternoon,  February  19,  1911,  Mr.  Albert  H.  Munsell 
said :  — 

“  In  attempting  an  appreciation  of  Homer’s  masterly  art, 
first  place  should  be  given  to  its  broad  human  message,  rather 
than  its  technique,  which  is  unsophisticated  and  almost  brutal, 
yet  never  obscures  the  genuineness  of  his  expression.  Tech¬ 
nique  is  an  external  quality,  and  may  be  rough  or  smooth  ; 
the  drawing  may  be  academic  or  clumsy,  the  color  grim  or 
suave,  yet  if  it  conveys  a  direct  message  from  one  human 
being  to  another,  and  leaves  the  impression  of  nature,  its 
work  is  complete.  The  sense  of  nature  breathes  through 
Homer’s  art.  Whether  it  takes  us  to  the  camps  of  the  Civil 
War  or  those  of  the  hunter  in  Canada  and  the  Adirondacks, 
whether  he  shows  the  fishermen  of  Tynemouth  in  old  Eng¬ 
land  or  those  of  Gloucester  in  the  New,  or  in  the  later  sunlit 
waters  of  the  West  Indies,  so  fully  does  he  impart  his  enthu¬ 
siasm  for  nature  that  we  seem  to  be  with  him  on  the  spot. 

“  Large  art  is  the  expression  of  large  conceptions.  It  does 
not  appeal  to  a  single  class  or  mental  attitude,  like  the  recent 


RUM  CAY,  BERMUDA 
From  the  watercolor  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Worcester  Art  Museum.  Copyright,  Detroit  Publishing 
Company 


BOYS  AND  KITTEN 

From  the  watercolor  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the 
Worcester  Art  Museum.  Copyright,  Detroit  Publishing 
Company 


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HOMER’S  DEATH 


267 


wail  of  art  for  art’s  sake.  It  plunges  deeper,  to  fundamental 
feelings  and  broad  human  interests.  Homer  is  not  to  be 
classed  with  any  school  or  group.  He  is  a  distinct  person¬ 
ality,  and  his  design  often  rises  to  a  sculpturesque,  almost 
monumental  impression.  His  ‘  Lookout  —  All ’s  Well,’  ‘  Eight 
Bells,’  ‘The  Fog  Warning,’  and  ‘A  Voice  from  the  Cliffs’ 
could  be  rendered  in  bronze,  instead  of  in  paint,  and  still 
move  us  profoundly. 

“  La  Farge’s  caustic  remark  that  America  has  more  paint¬ 
ers  than  artists  does  not  hurt  such  work ;  it  rather  empha¬ 
sizes  its  value,  for  although  Homer’s  earlier  paintings  were 
not  coloristic,  they  possessed  large  qualities  of  design,  and 
his  later  canvases  are  full  of  beautiful  color.  One  cannot 
dismiss  such  pictures  with  a  casual  glance.  They  grasp  the 
attention,  stimulate  thought,  and  leave  an  indelible  image. 
Thirty  years  ago,  as  a  student,  I  saw  his  ‘Wreck,’  ‘Voice 
from  the  Cliff,’  and  ‘Fox  Hunt.’  To-day  I  can  see  where  they 
hung  in  the  Park  Street  gallery,  even  with  eyes  shut,  so  deep 
and  complete  was  the  impression.  The  public  is  debtor  to 
the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  which  has  gathered  so  many  ex¬ 
amples  from  private  collections,  where  only  a  few  were  priv¬ 
ileged  to  see  them.  Such  works  of  contemporary  genius 
deserve  the  same  sincere  and  prolonged  study  which  we 
willingly  give  to  masterpieces  of  music  or  literature,  but  rarely 
accord  to  modern  works  in  painting  and  sculpture.” 

With  his  life-work  spread  before  us  like  an  open  book,  it 
is  now  possible  to  form  some  estimate  of  the  distinguishing 
characteristics  of  that  ceuvre ,  to  attempt  the  formulation  of 
a  verdict,  and  to  assign  a  just  place  in  the  history  of  paint¬ 
ing  in  America  to  this  unique  personality.  In  looking  back 
to  Homer’s  boyhood,  we  must  remember  that  he  started  out 
upon  his  career  as  a  painter  with  unusually  definite  convic- 


268 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


tions  as  to  his  policy.  It  is  a  remarkable  circumstance  that 
he  should  have  thought  out  a  plan  of  campaign  at  the  age 
when  most  boys  are  drifting  along,  coming  first  under  this 
and  then  under  that  influence.  “  I  am  going  to  be  a  painter,” 
he  said;  “and  if  you  are  going  to  be  a  painter,  it  is  best 
not  to  look  at  pictures.”  Allowing  for  the  exaggeration  and 
bravado  of  youth,  this  line  of  policy,  in  a  large  general  way, 
thus  early  determined,  constituted  his  declaration  of  inde¬ 
pendence,  and  was  a  sincere  expression  of  strong  personal 
conviction  and  of  temperamental  bias.  We  know  what  it  led 
to ;  we  know  in  what  an  uncommon  degree  it  was  adhered 
to  throughout  a  long  career  ;  and  artists  will  realize  how 
much  of  courage,  patience,  will  power,  and  hard  work  it 
implied. 

The  way  could  have  been  made  far  easier,  under  different 
conditions,  but  it  will  always  be  an  open  question  whether, 
in  Homer’s  case,  a  rigorous  course  of  academic  training, 
which  would  have  saved  him  so  many  difficulties,  would 
have  been  to  the  advantage  of  an  artist  constituted  as  he 
was,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  whether  it  would  not  have  in 
some  measure  taken  away  from  his  work  the  virgin  quality 
of  fresh  and  individual  perception,  offering  the  inadequate 
compensation  of  a  smoother,  more  fluent,  more  sophisticated 
style.  Such  speculations  would  lead  us  too  far  afield,  in¬ 
volving  as  they  do  the  whole  great  question  of  the  value  of 
art  instruction  as  it  is  given  in  the  schools.  For  good  or  ill, 
he  made  his  own  choice,  and  that  it  was  a  wise  one,  for  him, 
cannot  be  doubted.  He  justified  it  time  and  again  trium¬ 
phantly  and  conclusively. 

This  does  not  mean  that  he  was  a  faultless  painter;  on  the 
contrary,  he  had  many  faults ;  and  he  was  fully  aware  of  all 
his  shortcomings;  he  was  his  own  severest  critic.  There  are 


HOMER’S  DEATH 


269 


no  perfect  painters,  and,  if  there  were  such,  we  would  not 
like  them.  But  the  criticism  that  counts  takes  note  of  posi¬ 
tive,  affirmative  qualities,  and,  while  not  ignoring  defects, 
strikes  the  balance  in  favor  of  the  creative  and  original. 
Homer  created  his  conceptions,  coined  his  own  metal.  His 
style  was  the  style  of  a  man  having  something  to  say,  and, 
argue  as  we  may  about  what  constitutes  style,  that  is  the 
best  which  contains  the  most  meaning,  sentiment,  and  poetry. 
Technique  is  a  beautiful  and  desirable  thing;  it  is  sacred, 
if  you  will,  in  the  sense  that  good  workmanship  is  sacred, 
but  where  are  you  going  to  draw  the  line,  and  say,  Here 
technique  ends  and  the  artist’s  soul  begins  to  speak?  We 
cannot  thus  dissect  the  work  of  art,  for  it  is  a  living  thing. 
And,  again,  shall  we  say  that  there  is  a  standard  of  tech¬ 
nique  to  which  the  work  of  a  painter,  for  instance,  must  mea¬ 
sure  up  ?  Who  sets  that  standard  ?  All  this  hair-splitting  is 
idle,  and  it  has  nothing  to  say  to  real  art.  That  leaps  over 
barriers,  and  finds  its  own  means  of  expression  as  it  may.  It 
is  a  direct,  personal,  unambiguous,  recognizable  message,  a 
confession  of  faith,  a  revelation,  which,  originating  in  a  strong 
emotion,  and  delivered  with  travail,  comes  straight  to  our 
minds  and  hearts,  a  communication  of  one  man  to  another, 
which  can  and  does  stretch  out  a  hand  of  brotherhood  across 
the  long  ages. 

There  are  generations  yet  unborn  in  America  who  will 
receive  Winslow  Homer’s  message  with  joy  and  gratitude. 
He  kept  his  nature  unspoiled,  simple,  open,  and  sensitive  to 
the  call  of  nature  and  life.  He  held  holy  that  something  in 
himself  which  echoed  the  voice  of  the  ocean,  the  forest,  the 
mountain,  and  responded  with  such  perfect  harmony  and  sym¬ 
pathy  to  the  stern,  sad,  noble  beauty  of  the  North,  and  the 
sensuous  romance  and  splendor  of  the  South.  He  excluded 


WINSLOW  HOMER 


270 

much  from  his  life  that  most  men  cherish,  that  he  might  de¬ 
vote  himself  with  utter  singleness  of  purpose  to  his  vocation. 
In  all  the  history  of  art  you  will  find  no  man  —  no,  not  even 
Rembrandt  himself,  the  supreme  pictorial  artist  —  more  self- 
respecting.  I  speak  reverently  of  this  trait,  for  on  it  is  based 
the  dignity  and  nobility  of  his  art. 

From  my  boyhood  I  have  loved  his  pictures,  the  least  of 
them,  —  a  drawing  in  a  little  book,  a  slight  affair,  perhaps  a 
sail-boat  with  a  group  of  boys  and  girls  aboard,  but  so  full 
of  a  good,  sound,  expressive  naturalism,  that  one  said, 
“  What  a  jolly  thing  it  is  to  sail  a  boat !  ”  — and  from  that  day 
to  the  time  of  “The  Lookout  —  All ’s  Well,”  with  its  inscru¬ 
table,  mystic  suggestion  of  all  the  wonders  of  the  life  of  the 
seaman,  and  its  still  more  mysterious  hint  of  the  wonders  of 
life  itself,  the  solitary  figure  of  Winslow  Homer  has  loomed 
up  in  my  imagination  with  a  strange  persistency  and  a  singu¬ 
lar,  commanding  impressiveness.  In  him,  more  than  in  any 
other  American  painter,  dwelt  that  racy,  native,  pungent, 
Yankee  note  which  seemed  to  me  beyond  all  price.  The 
things  that  he  painted  interested  me;  the  way  that  he  painted 
them  suited  me ;  the  way  that  things  looked  to  him  was  the 
way  that  they  looked  to  me  ;  I  felt  that  I  understood  him  ;  and 
I  rashly  resolved  that  I  would  make  a  book  about  him.  Flow 
he  repelled  my  advances  we  have  seen ;  it  was  not  done  in 
an  unkind  spirit ;  I  believe  he  was  wholly  honest  when  he 
said  that  he  thought  such  a  thing  would  kill  him.  Never¬ 
theless,  being  overmuch  persuaded,  he  finally  promised  to 
answer  all  my  questions,  if  I  lived  long  enough ;  and  when 
he  died  one  of  my  letters  containing  fifty  questions  was  on 
his  desk  awaiting  the  responses  which  never  were  to  come. 

What  the  influence  of  his  life  and  work  upon  the  coming 
generation  of  American  painters  is  to  be,  is  a  difficult  ques- 


SHOOTING  THE  RAPIDS,  SAGUENAY  RIVER 

From  the  unfinished  oil  painting,  given  to  the  Metropoli¬ 
tan  Museum  of  Art,  New  York,  by  Mr.  Charles  S. 
Homer,  in  1911 


;!3vm  yazhuoas  .ear-?  ■\ji  3ht  oziTQOHg  • 


2  r'$iO  ,-slfc^  ,3  Z  •  i  ,!wk  \o  ,w!U)s¥. '  «»V 

\iqi  «; 


HOMER’S  DEATH 


271 


tion,  which  it  is  yet  too  early  to  settle.  An  artist  of  his  kind 
founds  no  school,  and  is  likely  to  have  few  followers.  If  his 
example  is  valued,  as  it  should  be,  it  will  simply  lead  to 
the  cultivation  of  a  more  and  more  intense  individualism. 
Whether  this  is  good  or  not  depends  entirely  upon  the  man. 
Homer’s  policy  would  be  suicidal  for  the  vast  majority.  Left 
to  their  own  devices,  they  would  go  to  pieces  in  short  order. 
They  must  have  somebody  to  lean  upon  ;  they  are  those 
who  require  the  “artistic  atmosphere.”  There  will  be,  how¬ 
ever,  from  time  to  time,  exceptional  men,  who  have  a  real 
vocation,  and  these  men  may  subject  themselves  to  the  test, 
and  try  to  stand  alone.  He  who  attempts  such  a  great  adven¬ 
ture  must  be  very  sure  of  his  calling ;  must  be  ready  to 
“scorn  delights  and  live  laborious  days.”  To  daring  souls, 
eager  to  measure  their  strength  against  all  the  forces  of  the 
world,  the  example  of  Homer  will  always  be  an  inspiration. 

In  other  walks  of  life  than  that  of  the  painter  it  may  well 
be  that  such  an  extreme  development  of  individualism  as  his 
would  be  regarded  as  deplorable.  But  in  the  art  of  painting 
a  man  cannot  make  a  more  valuable  contribution  to  the 
civilization  of  his  time  than  by  creating  his  own  traditions 
and  making  the  best  of  his  own  talents.  What  we  want  in 
painting  is  not  a  school ;  we  want  men  ;  and  the  problem 
for  the  painter  is  not  to  fit  himself  comfortably  into  the  social 
order,  but  to  cultivate  narrowly  his  personal  creative  capa¬ 
city.  It  has  happened  before  now  that  in  order  to  do  this  a 
man  has  found  it  necessary  to  exclude  from  his  scheme  of 
existence  most  of  the  items  that  go  to  the  making  of  the 
average  man’s  life. 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX 


THE  chronology  of  many  of  Winslow  Homer’s  oil  paint¬ 
ings  and  watercolors  offers  some  difficulty  to  the  cata¬ 
loguer.  Some  of  his  works  are  not  dated.  Others  have 
been  exhibited  and  catalogued  at  various  times  and  places  under 
different  titles.  Some  of  his  watercolors  either  have  no  titles,  or 
the  titles  have  been  forgot  by  the  owners,  so  that,  in  the  Boston 
Memorial  Exhibition  of  1911,  some  of  the  titles  had  to  be  ex¬ 
temporized  for  the  occasion.  The  subjoined  lists  of  the  works 
exhibited  in  many  exhibitions  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Pitts¬ 
burg,  and  Boston  —  including  all  the  exhibitions  of  the  National 
Academy  of  Design,  from  1863  to  1910,  in  which  any  of  his 
works  were  shown,  all  the  exhibitions  of  the  American  Water- 
color  Society  in  which  he  was  represented,  and  the  Memorial 
Exhibitions  of  1911  in  New  York  and  Boston  —  contain  a  very 
large  majority  of  the  entire  oeuvre  of  the  artist,  since  there  are 
but  very  few  of  his  works  in  either  medium  which  did  not  find 
their  way  into  some  one  of  these  exhibitions.  The  dates  are  be¬ 
lieved  to  be  in  most  cases  correct,  but,  as  it  has  been  necessary  in 
some  instances  to  rely  upon  circumstantial  evidence,  their  exacti¬ 
tude  cannot  be  guaranteed.  In  the  lists  of  works  exhibited  in  the 
National  Academy  of  Design,  the  American  Watercolor  Society, 
the  Society  of  American  Artists,  and  the  Pennsylvania  Academy 
of  the  Fine  Arts,  the  dates  given  are  those  of  the  exhibitions.  In 
the  lists  of  the  Clarke  collection,  the  loan  exhibition  at  the  Carne¬ 
gie  Institute  at  Pittsburg  in  1908,  and  the  New  York  and  Boston 
Memorial  Exhibitions  of  1911,  the  dates  given  are  those  of  the 
works  themselves. 


276 


APPENDIX 


LIST  OF  PICTURES  BY  WINSLOW  HOMER 
EXHIBITED  IN  THE  EXHIBITIONS  OF 
THE  NATIONAL  ACADEMY  OF  DESIGN, 
NEW  YORK,  FROM  1863  TO  1910 

DATE  TITLE 

1863.  The  Last  Goose  at  Yorktown. 

Home,  Sweet  Home. 

1864.  In  front  of  the  Guard-house. 

The  Briarwood  Pipe. 

1865.  The  Bright  Side.  4$ 

Pitching  Quoits. 

The  Initials. 

1866.  The  Brush  Harrow. 

Prisoners  from  the  Front. 

1867.  A  Study. 

Confederate  Prisoners  at  the  Front.  (Johnston  Collection. J 

1868.  Picardie. 

The  Studio. 

1869.  The  Manchester  Coast. 

Low  Tide. 

1870.  White  Mountain  Wagon. 

Sketch  from  Nature. 

Mt.  Adams. 

Sail-boat. 

Salem  Harbor. 

Lobster  Cove. 

As  You  Like  It. 

Sawkill  River,  Pa. 

Eagle  Head,  Manchester. 

The  White  Mountains. 

Manners  and  Customs  at  the  Seaside. 

1872.  The  Mill. 

The  Country  School. 


APPENDIX 


277 


DATE  TITLE 

1872.  Crossing  the  Pasture. 

Rainy  Day  in  Camp. 

Country  Store. 

1874.  School  Time. 

Girl. 

Sunday  Morning. 

Dad ’s  Coming. 

1875.  Landscape. 

Milking  Time. 

Course  of  True  Love. 

Uncle  Ned  at  Home. 

1876.  The  Old  Boat. 

Cattle  Piece. 

Over  the  Hills. 

A  Fair  Wind. 

Foraging. 

1877.  Answering  the  Horn. 

Landscape. 

1878.  The  Watermelon  Boys. 

The  Two  Guides. 

In  the  Fields. 

Morning. 

Shall  I  Tell  Your  Fortune? 

A  Fresh  Morning. 

1879.  Upland  Cotton. 

Sundown. 

The  Shepherdess  of  Houghton  Farm. 

1880.  Summer. 

Visit  from  the  Old  Mistress. 

Camp  Fire. 

Sunday  Morning. 

1883.  The  Coming  Away  of  the  Gale. 

1884.  The  Life  Line. 

1885.  The  Herring  Net  (or,  Banks  Fishermen). 

1886.  Lost  on  the  Grand  Banks. 


278 


APPENDIX 


DATE  TITLE 

1887.  Undertow. 

1888.  Eight  Bells. 

1906.  The  Gulf  Stream. 

1908.  The  West  Wind. 

Hound  and  Hunter. 

1910.  Below  Zero.  (Spring  Exhibition.) 

W  eather-beaten. 

Camp  Fire.  Exhibited  in  memo- 

Sunset,  Saco  Bay,  the  Coming  Storm,  \riam  at  the  Winter 


High  Cliff,  Coast  of  Maine. 
The  West  Wind. 


Exhibition 


LIST  OF  WATERCOLORS  BY  WINSLOW 
HOMER  EXHIBITED  AT  THE  EXHIBI¬ 
TIONS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  WATERCOLOR 
SOCIETY,  NEW  YORK,  FROM  1867  TO  1909 

DATE  TITLE 

1867.  Study 
1870.  Long  Branch. 

1875.  A  Lazy  Day. 

The  Changing  Basket. 

What  Is  It? 

A  Pot  Fisherman. 

A  Fisherman’s  Daughter, 

On  the  Fence. 

Fly  Fishing. 

A  Sick  Chicken. 

A  Basket  of  Clams. 

Skirting  the  Wheat. 

How  Many  Eggs? 

An  Oil  Prince. 

On  the  Sands. 


APPENDIX 


279 


DATE  TITLE 

1875.  Green  Apples. 

A  Clam  Bake. 

Why  don’t  the  Suckers  Bite  ? 

Pull  Him  In  ! 

Cow  Boys. 

The  Bazaar  Book  of  Decorum. 
Good  Morning. 

A  Farm  Team. 

Another  Girl. 

The  “Thaddeus  of  Warsaw.” 

The  City  of  Gloucester. 
Adirondacks  Guides. 

Seven  Sketches  in  Black-and- White. 

1876.  After  the  Bath. 

A  Chimney  Corner. 

The  Busy  Bee. 

A  Penny  for  Your  Thoughts. 

The  Gardener’s  Daughter. 

A  Flower  for  the  Teacher. 
Contraband. 

Poor  Luck. 

A  Fish  Story. 

Fiction. 

Furling  the  Jib. 

Study. 

Too  Thoughtful  for  Her  Years. 

A  Glimpse  from  a  Raiiroad  Train. 

1877.  Book. 

Blackboard. 

Rattlesnake. 

Lemon. 

Backgammon. 

1879.  Husking. 

Fresh  Air. 

Oak  Trees  with  Girl. 


28o 


APPENDIX 


DATE  TITLE 

1879.  Chestnut  Tree. 

Sketch. 

On  the  Fence. 

Girl  in  a  Wind. 

Watching  Sheep. 

Sketch  from  Nature. 

In  the  Orchard. 

Girl  on  a  Garden  Seat. 

On  the  Hill. 

The  Strawberry  Field. 

Girl  and  Boy. 

Old  House. 

A  Rainy  Day. 

October. 

Oak  Trees. 

Corn. 

Girl,  Sheep,  and  Basket. 

Girl  and  Boat. 

Willows. 

Girl  with  Half  a  Rake. 

Girl,  Boat,  and  Boy. 

1881.  Gloucester,  Mass. 

Winding  the  Clock.  (Lent  by  Gen.  F.  W.  Palfrey.) 
Something  Good  About  This  ! 

Girl  Reading. 

Watercolor. 

Clover. 

Girl. 

Eastern  Point  Light. 

Sunset. 

Coasters  at  Anchor. 

July  Morning. 

Gloucester  Boys. 

Watercolor. 

A  Lively  Time. 


APPENDIX 


281 


DATE  TITLE 

1881.  Bad  Weather. 

Early  Morning. 

Sunset. 

Schooners  at  Anchor. 

Ozone. 

Field  Point,  Greenwich,  Conn. 

Three  Boys. 

The  Yacht  Hope. 

Fishing  Boats  at  Anchor. 

1883.  Tynemouth. 

A  Voice  from  the  Cliff. 

Inside  the  Bar. 

The  Incoming  Tide. 

1884.  The  Ship’s  Boat. 

Scotch  Mist. 

1887.  Sketch  in  Key  West.  (Lent  by  C.  S.  Homer.) 
Sketch  in  Florida.  (Lent  by  C.  S.  Homer.) 

1888.  Tampa. 

“For  to  be  a  Farmer’s  Boy.” 

Florida. 

A  Norther,  Key  West. 

Sand  and  Sky. 

Eels. 

1891.  Mending  Nets. 

1905.  Pulling  in  the  Anchor. 

1906.  The  Turkey  Buzzard. 

Black  Bass,  Florida. 

Taking  on  Provisions. 

1909.  By  the  North  Sea. 

Five  Drawings. 


282 


APPENDIX 


LIST  OF  OIL  PAINTINGS  BY  WINSLOW 
HOMER  EXHIBITED  AT  THE  EXHIBI¬ 
TIONS  OF  THE  PENNSYLVANIA  ACAD¬ 
EMY  OF  THE  FINE  ARTS,  PHILADELPHIA, 
FROM  1888  TO  1910 


DATE 


TITLE 


REMARKS 


1888-1889. 

1893-1894. 


I  895-1896. 


1896-1897. 

1899- I9OO. 

1900- I9OI. 

1901- I9O2. 

1902- I9O3. 

1903- I9O4. 

1905- I906. 

1906- I907. 

1907- I908. 

1908- 1909. 

1909- I9IO. 

1910- I9I I. 


Undertow. 

The  Fox  Hunt. 

On  the  Lake. 

Just  Caught. 

Afternoon. 

Northeaster. 

Moonlight,  Wood  Island  Light. 

Storm-Beaten. 

Sunset,  Saco  Bay,  the  Coming  Storm. 

The  Gulf  Stream. 

High  Seas. 

The  Signal  of  Distress. 

Northeaster. 

Flight  of  Wild  Geese. 

Eastern  Point. 

The  Unruly  Calf. 

Early  Morning,  Coast  of  Maine. 

Eight  Bells.  Lent  by  E.  T.  Stotesbury 

Kissing  the  Moon. 

Long  Branch.  Lent  by  R.  TV.  Vonnoh 

Bermuda.  (Watercolor.)  Lent  by  Dr.  George  Woodward 
High  Cliff,  Coast  of  Maine.  Lent  by  William  T.  Evans 
Searchlight,  Harbor  Entrance,  Santiago  de  Cuba. 

Early  Evening.  Lent  by  Charles  L.  Freer 

Right  and  Left. 


Lent  by  Thomas  B . 
Clarke 


Lent  by  Col.  George  C. 
Briggs 

Lent  by  George  A.  Hearn 
Lent  by  Mrs.  R.  C.  Lincoln 


APPENDIX 


283 


LIST  OF  WORKS  EXHIBITED  BY  WINSLOW 
HOMER  IN  THE  EXHIBITIONS  OF  THE 
SOCIETY  OF  AMERICAN  ARTISTS,  NEW 
YORK,  FROM  1897  TO  1903 


TITLE 


DATE 


1897.  Marine  —  Coast. 

The  Lookout  —  All ’s  Well,  Lights  All  Up. 
Saco  Bay. 

1900.  High  Seas. 

1901.  West  Point,  Prout’s  Neck,  Maine. 

Eastern  Point. 

1902.  Northeaster. 

1903.  Early  Morning. 

Cannon  Rock. 


LIST  OF  OIL  PAINTINGS  AND  WATER- 
COLORS  BY  WINSLOW  HOMER  IN  THE 
COLLECTION  OF  MR.  THOMAS  B.  CLARKE 
OF  NEW  YORK 


[Note. — Mr.  Clarke’s  collection  was  sold  at  auction,  February  14,  15,  16,  and  17, 
1899.  In  this  list  the  dates,  when  available,  and  the  names  of  the  purchasers  are  given. 
Many  of  the  works  have  changed  hands  since  1899.] 


Oil  Paintings 


DATE 


TITLE 


BUYER 

E.  H.  Bernheimer 


1863.  Rations. 

1865.  The  Bright  Side. 

1876.  The  Visit  from  the  Old  Mistress. 


S.  P.  Avery ,  Jr. 


M.  H.  Lehman 


The  Two  Guides. 
1877.  The  Carnival. 


C.  J.  Blair 
N.  C.  Matthews 


284 


APPENDIX 


DATE  TITLE 

1880.  Camp  Fire. 

1882?  To  the  Rescue. 

1884.  The  Life  Line. 

1885.  The  Market  Scene. 

1886.  Eight  Bells. 

1891.  The  West  Wind. 

1892.  Coast  in  Winter. 

1893.  The  Gale. 

1894.  Moonlight,  Wood  Island  Light. 
1896.  Maine  Coast. 

The  Lookout  —  All ’s  Well. 


BUYER 

Alexander  Harrison 
T.  L.  Manson ,  Jr. 
G.  TV.  Elkins 
R.  A.  Thompson 
Herman  Schaus 
Samuel  Untermyer 
C.  J.  Blair 
T.  Harsen  Rhoades 
Boussod ,  Valadon  Co. 

F.  A.  Bell 
Museum  of  Fine  Arts ,  Boston 


DATE 

1874. 

l88l. 

1883. 

1885. 

1886. 
1887. 

1890. 

1891. 

1892. 


Watercolors 


TITLE 

In  the  Garden. 

Watching  the  Tempest. 

Perils  of  the  Sea. 

The  Breakwater. 

The  Buccaneers. 

Under  a  Palm  Tree. 

Danger. 

Sea  on  the  Bar. 

Rowing  Homeward. 

On  the  Cliffs. 

Canoeing  in  the  Adirondacks. 
Fodder. 

Rise  to  a  Fly. 

An  Unexpected  Catch. 
Leaping  Trout. 


BUYER 

F.  Rockefeller 
Burton  Mansfield 
A.  C.  Humphreys 
Emerson  McMillin 
E.  D.  Page 
F.  Rockefeller 
H.  Sampson 
TV.  S.  Rainsford 
Charles  L.  Freer 
Thomas  L.  Manson ,  Jr. 
Thomas  L.  Manson ,  Jr. 

J.  B.  Mahon 
D.  A.  Davis 
F.  Rockefeller 
Museum  of  Fine  Arts ,  Boston 


APPENDIX 


285 


LIST  OF  WORKS  IN  THE  LOAN  EXHIBI¬ 
TION  OF  OIL  PAINTINGS  BY  WINSLOW 
HOMER  HELD  AT  THE  CARNEGIE  INSTI¬ 
TUTE,  PITTSBURG,  PENNSYLVANIA,  IN 
MAY  AND  JUNE,  1908 


DATE  TITLE 

1885.  Banks  Fishermen. 

The  Fog  Warning. 

1887.  Hark,  the  Lark  ! 

Undertow. 

1891.  Huntsman  and  Dogs. 

1892.  Hound  and  Hunter. 

1893.  The  Gale. 

The  Fox  Hunt. 

1894.  The  Fisher  Girl. 

High  Cliff,  Coast  of  Maine. 

1895.  Cannon  Rock. 

1896.  The  Lookout  —  All’s  Well 
Sunset,  Saco  Bay,  The  Coming  Storm. 

Maine  Coast. 

The  Two  Guides. 

The  Wreck. 

1897.  Flight  of  Wild  Geese. 

A  Light  on  the  Sea.  Corcoran  Gallery  of  Art 

1899-  The  Gulf  Stream.  Metropolitan  Museum 

Searchlight,  Harbor  Entrance,  Santiago  de  Cuba. 

Metropolitan  Museum 

1900.  On  a  Lee  Shore.  Rhode  Island  School  of  Design 

1907.  Early  Evening.  Charles  L.  Freer 


OWNER 

Charles  W.  Gould 
Museum  of  Fine  Arts ,  Boston 
Layton  Art  Gallery ,  Milwaukee 
Edward  D.  Adams 
Mrs.  Bancel  La  Farge 
Louis  Ettlinger 
Mrs.  B.  Ogden  Chisolm 
Pennsylvania  Academy 
Burton  Mansfield 
National  Gallery  of  Art 
Metropolitan  Museum 
Museum  of  Fine  Arts ,  Boston 
Lotos  Club 
C.  y.  Blair 
C.  y.  Blair 
Carnegie  Institute 
Mrs.  R.  C.  Lincoln 


286 


APPENDIX 


LIST  OF  WORKS  IN  THE  WINSLOW  HOMER 
MEMORIAL  EXHIBITION  HELD  IN  THE 
METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART,  NEW 
YORK,  FEBRUARY  6  TO  MARCH  19,  1911 


Oil  Paintings 


1865.  The  Bright  Side. 

1872.  Snapping  the  Whip. 

1876.  The  Visit  from  the  Old  Mistress. 
1880.  Camp  Fire. 

1881-1907.  Early  Evening. 


DATE  TITLE  OWNER 

W.  A.  White 
Richard  H.  Ewart 
National  Gallery  of  Art 
H.  K.  Pomroy 
Charles  L.  Freer 

(“Painted  in  1881 — Cut  down  from  large  picture  and  put  in 
present  shape  December,  1907.”) 

1885.  Banks  Fishermen  (or,  The  Herring  Net).  Charles  W.  Gould 

1886.  Undertow.  Edward  D.  Adams 

Eight  Bells.  Edward  T.  Stotesbury 

Coast  in  Winter.  John  G.  Johnson 

Sunlight  on  the  Coast.  John  G.  Johnson 

West  Wind.  Samuel  Untermeyer 

Hound  and  Hunter.  Louis  Ettlinger 

The  Fox  Hunt.  Pennsylvania  Academy 

World’s  Columbian  Exposition  —  The  Fountain  at  Night. 

C.  S.  Homer 

Moonlight,  Wood  Island  Light.  George  A.  Hearn 

The  Fisher  Girl.  Burton  Mansfield 

1896.  Watching  the  Breakers:  A  High  Sea.  Mrs.  H.  W.  Rogers 
Sunset,  Saco  Bay,  the  Coming  Storm.  The  Lotos  Club 

Maine  Coast.  George  A.  Hearn 

1904.  Sunset  and  Moonrise  (or,  Kissing  the  Moon).  Lewis  A.  Sti/nson 

1909.  Cape  Trinity,  Saguenay  River,  Moonlight.  Burton  Mansfield 

Right  and  Left.  Randal  Morgan 

1910.  Shooting  the  Rapids,  Saguenay  River  (Unfinished). 

Charles  S.  Homer 


1890. 

1891. 

1892. 

1 893. 


1894. 


APPENDIX 

287 

Watercolors 

DATE 

TITLE 

OWNER 

*873- 

Berry  Pickers. 

Mrs.  Lawson  Valentine 

Boys  Wading. 

Mrs.  Lawson  Valentine 

OO 

OO 

Shepherdess. 

Mrs.  Lawson  Valentine 

Hillside. 

Mrs.  Lawson  Valentine 

M 

OO 

OO 

On  the  Beach,  Tynemouth. 

Charles  S.  Homer 

Peril  of  the  Sea. 

Alexander  C.  Humphreys 

Watching  the  Tempest. 

Burton  Mansfield 

1882. 

Fishwives. 

Charles  S.  Homer 

Fishing  Boats  off  Scarborough. 

Alexander  IV.  Drake 

00 

00 

A  Voice  from  the  Cliffs, 

Alexander  IV.  Drake 

1889. 

Trout. 

Charles  S.  Homer 

1890. 

Salt  Kettle. 

Charles  S.  Homer 

St.  John’s  River,  Florida. 

Charles  S.  Homer 

1892. 

Sketch  for  Hound  and  Hunter. 

Charles  S.  Homer 

1898. 

Turtle  Pound. 

Hamilton  Field 

Natural  Bridge,  Nassau. 

Metropolitan  Museum 

Palm  Tree,  Nassau. 

Metropolitan  Museum 

Tornado,  Bahamas. 

Metropolitan  Museum 

A  Wall,  Nassau. 

Metropolitan  Museum 

1899. 

Bermuda. 

Metropolitan  Museum 

Flower  Garden  and  Bungalow. 

Metropolitan  Museum 

Shore  and  Surf,  Nassau. 

Metropolitan  Museum 

The  Bather. 

Metropolitan  Museum 

Sloop,  Bermuda. 

Metropolitan  Museum 

1900. 

The  Pioneer. 

Metropolitan  Museum 

1903. 

Taking  on  Wet  Provisions. 

Metropolitan  Museum 

Fishing  Boats,  Key  West. 

Metropolitan  Museum 

1904. 

Homosassa,  Florida. 

Charles  S.  Homer 

288 


APPENDIX 


LIST  OF  WORKS  IN  THE  WINSLOW  HOMER 
MEMORIAL  EXHIBITION  HELD  IN  THE 
MUSEUM  OF  FINE  ARTS,  BOSTON,  FEB¬ 
RUARY  7  TO  MARCH  1,1911 


Oil  Paintings 


DATE 

TITLE 

OWNER 

1865. 

Zouaves  Pitching  Quoits. 

Frederic  H.  Curtiss 

1869. 

Mount  Washington. 

Airs.  IV.  H.  S.  Pearce 

Study. 

Arthur  B.  Homer 

1885. 

The  Fog  Warning. 

Museum  of  Fine  Arts 

1891. 

Huntsman  and  Dogs. 

Mrs.  Bancel  La  Farge 

1896. 

The  Lookout  — All’s  Well. 

Museum  of  Fine  Arts 

1897. 

Flight  of  Wild  Geese. 

Mrs.  Roland  C.  Lincoln 

I9OO. 

On  a  Lee  Shore.  Rhode  Island  School  of  Design 

Watercolors 

DATE 

TITLE 

OWNER 

00 

00 

1— 1 

On  the  Fence. 

William  H.  Downes 

Sketch. 

Henry  Sayles 

1879. 

Girl  with  Letter. 

Edward  Hooper  estate 

Going  Berrying. 

Horace  D.  Chapin 

HH 

00 

00 

0 

Children  Wading  at  Gloucester. 

Edward  Hooper  estate 

Children  and  Sail-boat. 

Airs.  Greely  S.  Curtis 

Sailing  Dories. 

Edward  Hooper  estate 

The  Green  Dory. 

Dr.  Arthur  T.  Cabot 

Gloucester  Harbor. 

Edward  Hooper  estate 

1881. 

Wreck  off  the  English  Coast. 

Edward  Hooper  Estate 

Three  Fishermen  and  Girl. 

fohn  T.  Morse ,  Jr. 

Fishermen’s  Wives. 

John  V.  Morse ,  Jr. 

Mouth  of  the  Tyne,  England 

Arthur  B.  Homer 

Fisherwomen,  English  Coast. 

Edward  Hooper  estate 

1882. 

Tynemouth  Boats. 

Grenville  H.  Norcross 

An  After-glow. 

William  P.  Blake 

APPENDIX 


289 


DATE 

1882. 

1883. 


TITLE 

The  Dunes. 

Scotch  Fishwomen. 
Returning  Fishing  Boat. 
Storm  cn  the  English  Coast. 


OWNER 

Mrs.  Samuel  Cabot 
Museum  of  Fine  Arts 
Horace  D.  Chapin 
Roger  Warner 


(Painted  at  Flamborough  Head.) 


1885. 

1885? 


1887. 

1889. 

1892. 

1894. 

1895. 


Landscape  and  Lake. 

Bahamas. 

The  Road  in  Nassau. 

Diver,  Nassau. 

Spanish  Club,  Santiago  de  Cuba. 
Street  in  Santiago  de  Cuba 
Custom  House,  Santiago  de  Cuba 
In  a  Corn-field. 

Deer  in  Canada  Woods. 
Adirondacks. 

In  the  Adirondacks. 

Surf  at  Prout’s  Neck. 

Men  in  Canoe. 


Arthur  B.  Homer 
Edward  Hooper  estate 
William  P.  Blake 
Mrs.  Greely  S.  Curtis 
Mrs.  C.  A.  Coolidge 
Mrs.  Robert  Osgood 
Roger  Warner 
Edward  Hooper  estate 
Edward  Hooper  estate 
Edward  Hooper  estate 
Mrs.  S.  D.  Warren 
Mrs.  Orlando  H.  Alford 
Clement  S.  Houghton 
Museum  of  Fine  Arts 


1897. 


Indian  Camp. 

(“  Montagnais  Indians,  Point  Bleue,  Quebec.”) 

Trout  Fishing.  Museum  of  Fine  Arts 

Marine.  f.  Reed  Whipple  &  Co. 

Leaping  Trout.  Museum  of  Fine  Arts 


Men  in  a  Canoe. 

Guide. 

Ouananiche  Fishing  in  Lake  St.  John 


1902. 


Three  Men  in  a  Canoe. 
Mountain  and  Sky. 
Lumberman. 

Ouananiche,  St.  John  River. 
Wild  Ducks. 

Fishing. 

Shooting  Rapids. 

Canoes  in  Rapids. 

Scene  in  the  Adirondacks. 


Mrs 


Mrs.  A.  S.  Bigelow 
William  P.  Blake 
H.  O.  Underwood 
fames  M.  Longyear 
W.  S.  Bigelow 
W.  S.  Bigelow 
Hollis  French 
Mrs.  Arthur  H.  Sargent 
Frederic  H.  Curtiss 
Mrs.  f.  f.  Storrow 
Mrs.  Orlando  H.  Alford 
Dr.  A.  Coolidge ,  Jr. 


290 


APPENDIX 


DATE  TITLE 

1902.  Palms  in  a  Storm,  Key  West. 
1907.  The  Portage. 

Cliffs  at  Prout’s  Neck. 


OWNER 

Greely  S.  Curtis 
Desmond  FitzGerald 
Arthur  B.  Homer 


Black-and-JVhite  Drawings 


DATE  TITLE 

1879.  Boy  with  a  Stick. 
Boy  with  Scythe. 
Boys  Swimming. 

1880.  Gloucester  Harbor. 

1881.  Wreck. 


OWNER 

Mrs.  Robert  Osgood 
Horace  D.  Chapin 
Horace  D.  Chapin 
Horace  D.  Chapin 
Roger  Warner 


(“Wreck  of  the  Iron  Crown,  Tynemouth,  October  25,  1881.”) 
Sketch.  Edward  W.  Forbes 

Fisherwornen,  English  Coast.  Roger  Warner 

1882.  Fisherwornen.  William  H.  Downes 

Fishing  V  essels  off  Rocks.  Roger  W arner 

1884.  Woman  in  Storm.  Francis  H.  Lee 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Anonymous.  An  unsigned  paper  on  Winslow  Homer  and  F.  A. 
Bridgman,  in  the  Art  Journal,  London,  August,  1878.  American 
edition,  pp.  225-227. 

Anonymous.  Descriptive  Catalogue  of  the  Loan  Exhibition  of 
Paintings  by  Winslow  Homer  at  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of 
Art.  New  York:  1911.  53  pages. 

Anonymous.  “  Great  Painters  of  the  Ocean.”  Current  Lit¬ 
erature ,  New  York,  vol.  45,  pp.  54—57. 

Anonymous.  “  Winslow  Homer.”  The  Outlook ,  New  York, 
October  15,  1910,  pp.  338-339. 

Brinton,  Christian.  “  Winslow  Homer.”  Scribner  s  Maga¬ 
zine ,  January,  19 11,  pp.  9—23.  13  illustrations. 

Caffin,  Charles  H.  American  Masters  of  Painting  (New 
York  :  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.,  1906),  pp.  71—80. 

Caffin,  Charles  H.  Story  of  American  Painting  (New  York: 
1907),  pp.  233-236. 

Caffin,  Charles  H.  “  Winslow  Homer’s  Marine  Paintings.” 
The  Critic ,  New  York,  vol.  43,  p.  548. 

Champlin  &  Perkins.  Cyclopedia  of  Painters  and  Paintings. 
(New  York:  Charles  Scribner’s  Sons,  1886),  vol.  2,  p.  285. 

Chase,  J.  Eastman.  “  Some  Recollections  of  Winslow  Homer.” 
Harper  s  Weekly ,  New  York,  October  2  2,  1910,  p.  13. 

Clement  &  Hutton.  Artists  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  and 
Their  Works  (Boston:  Houghton,  Alifflin  &  Co.,  188c),  vol.  1, 
pp.  362-363. 

Coburn,  F.  W.  «  Winslow  Homer’s  Fog  Warning.”  Neva 
England  Magazine ,  1908;  New  Series,  vol.  38,  pp.  616—617. 

Coffin,  William  A.  “A  Painter  of  the  Sea.”  Century  Maga¬ 
zine ,  September,  1899,  pp.  651-654. 

Cole,  W.  W.  “  Crayon  Studies,  by  Winslow  Homer.”  Brush 
and  Pencil ,  Chicago,  January,  1903,  pp.  271-276. 


294 


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Cox,  Kenyon.  “  Three  Pictures  by  Winslow  Homer  in  the 
Metropolitan  Museum.”  The  Burlington  Magazine ,  London,  No¬ 
vember,  1907,  pp.  1 23-1 24. 

Downes,  William  Howe.  Twelve  Great  Artists  (Boston: 
Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  1900),  pp.  103-125. 

Downes,  William  Howe.  “  American  Paintings  in  the  Bos¬ 
ton  Art  Museum.”  Brush  and  Pencil ,  Chicago,  August,  1900, 
pp.  202—204. 

Fowler,  Frank.  “An  Exponent  of  Design  in  Painting.” 
Scribner  s  Magazine ,  New  York,  May,  1903,  pp.  638-640. 

Hartmann,  Sadakichi.  A  History  of  American  Art  (Boston, 
L.  C.  Page  Sc  Co.,  1902),  vol.  1,  pp.  189-200. 

Hearn,  George  A.  The  George  A.  Hearn  Gift  to  the  Metro¬ 
politan  Museum  of  Art  in  the  City  of  New  York  in  the  Year  MCMV I 
(New  York,  1906),  pp.  191-197. 

Hind,  C.  Lewis.  “  American  Paintings  in  Germany.”  The 
International  Studio ,  September,  1910,  p.  189. 

Hoeeer,  Arthur.  “  Winslow  Homer,  a  Painter  of  the 
Sea.”  The  JForlAs  Work ,  New  York,  February,  1911  ;  pp.  14009- 

14017- 

Howard,  W.  Stanton.  “  Winslow  Homer’s  Northeaster.” 
Harper’s  A'lagazine ,  New  York,  March,  19 10,  pp.  574—575. 

Isham,  Samuel.  The  History  of  American  Painting  (New  York: 
The  Macmillan  Company,  1905),  pp.  350-358,  408,  461,  462, 
472,  475,  50C5  50I5  5 10- 

McSpadden,  J.  Walker.  Famous  Painters  of  America  (New 
York:  Thomas  Y.  Crowell  Sc  Co.,  1907),  pp.  169-189. 

Mechlin,  Leila.  “  Winslow  Homer.”  The  International 
Studio ,  June,  1908,  pp.  cxxv— cxxxvi. 

Mechlin,  Leila.  “  Winslow  Homer.”  The  Review  of  Re¬ 
views,  July,  1908.  (A  condensation  of  the  foregoing  article.) 

Morton,  Frederick  W.  “The  Art  of  Winslow  Homer.” 
Brush  and  Pencil ,  Chicago,  April,  1902,  pp.  40—54. 

Morton,  Frederick  W.  The  Critic ,  vol.  46,  p.  323. 
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1896),  vol.  3,  p.  482. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  295 

Pach,  Walter.  “  Quelques  Notes  sur  les  Peintres  Ameri- 
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Pattison,  James  William.  Painters  since  Leonardo  (Chicago: 
Herbert  S.  Stone  &  Co.,  1904),  pp.  199,  210-21 1. 

Saint-Gaudens,  Homer.  “  Winslow  Homer.”  The  Critic , 
April,  1905,  pp.  322-323. 

Sheldon,  G.  W.  American  Painters  (New  York,  1879),  pp. 
25-29. 

Strachan,  Edward.  The  Art  Treasures  of  America.  Philadel¬ 
phia  :  George  Barrie,  1879. 

Tuckerman,  Henry  T.  Book  of  the  Artists  (New  York:  1867), 
p.  491. 

Van  Rensselaer,  M.  G.  “  An  American  Painter  in  England.” 
The  Century  Magazine,  November,  1883,  pp.  13-20. 

Van  Rensselaer,  Mrs.  Schuyler.  Six  Portraits  (Boston : 
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the  magazine  article  mentioned  above.) 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abbey,  E.  A.,  207,  243,  244. 

Abbott,  Jacob,  254. 

“Academy  Notes”  (1884),  123. 

Adams,  E.  D.,  144;  collection  of,  231. 
“Adirondacks,”  265. 

“Advance  Guard  —  Crossing  the  Long 
Bridge,  etc.,  The,”  39. 

“Afterglow,  An,”  265. 

Albright  Art  Gallery,  exhibitions,  243,  246. 
Alexander,  J.  W.,  207,  212,  256. 

American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Letters,  253. 
American  Art  Association,  242. 

“American  Paintings  in  Germany,”  246. 
“American  Type,  The,”  81. 

American  Watercolor  Society,  56;  exhibi¬ 
tions,  92, 94, 105, 106, 126, 146, 151, 162. 
“Answering  the  Horn,”  89. 

“Anything  for  Me,  etc.,”  54. 

“Appleton’s  Journal,”  94. 

“Approach  of  the  British  Pirate  ‘Alabama,’ 
The,”  46. 

“Approach  to  the  Rapids,”  180. 
“Approaching  Tornado,”  131. 

“April  Showers,”  31. 

Armour  Institute  of  Technology,  208. 

“Army  of  the  Potomac,  The  —  A  Sharp¬ 
shooter  on  Picket  Duty,”  45,  46, 47. 

“Army  of  the  Potomac,  The  —  Our  Outlying 
Picket  in  the  Woods,”  43. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  125. 

“Arrival  at  the  Old  Home,”  31. 

Art  Institute  of  Chicago,  247;  exhibition 
(1910),  142,  172. 

“Art  Interchange,”  204. 

“Art  Journal,”  34. 

“Art  Students  and  Copyists  in  the  Louvre, 
etc.,”  60. 

“Art  Treasures  of  America,”  90. 

“As  You  Like  It,”  64. 

Associated  Press,  252. 

“At  Sea  —  Signalling  a  Passing  Steamer,” 
66,  67. 

“At  the  Foot  of  the  Lighthouse,”  see  “Flight 
of  Wild  Geese.” 

“August  in  the  Country  —  The  Seashore,” 

31- 


Avery,  G.  A.,  66. 

Avery,  S.  P.,  55;  S.  P.  Jr.,  S3- 

Babbot,  F.  L.,  245. 

“Backgammon,”  89. 

“Bad  Weather,”  94. 

Baker,  J.  E.,  18,  27,  28,  29,  50,  60,  167,  238, 
24r,  242. 

Ball,  T.  R.,  48. 

“Ballou’s  Pictorial,”  29. 

“Banana  Tree,”  129. 

“Banks  Fishermen,”  137,  231,  258. 

Banks,  Governor,  32. 

Barbizon  School,  84. 

Barlow,  Colonel  Francis  C.,  43,  56. 

“Bathe  at  Newport,  The,”  30. 

“Bather,  The,”  259,  261. 

“Bathers,  The,”  73. 

“Bathing  at  Long  Branch,  etc.,”  66,  68. 
“Battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  The,  etc.,”  80. 

Beatty,  J.  W.,  200,  20T,  231. 

“Beetle  and  Wedge,  The,”  25. 

Bell,  F.  A.,  187. 

“Below  Zero,”  170,  171,  224,  247. 

Benson,  Eugene,  35. 

Benson,  F.  W.,  200,  201,  212. 

Benson,  George,  26. 

Benson,  John,  22,  23. 

Benson,  Sarah  (Buck),  22. 

Berenson,  Bernhard,  170. 

“Bermuda,”  259,  260. 

Bernlieimer,  E.  H.,  47. 

“Berry  Pickers,”  74,  78,  259. 

Bicknell,  A.  H.,  70. 

BickneU,  W.  H.  W.,  184. 

“Bivouac  Fire  on  the  Potomac,”  40,  42. 
Bixbee,  W.  J.,  198. 

Bixby,  W.  K.,  219,  246. 

“Black  Bass,  Florida,”  225,  231. 
“Blackboard,”  89. 

Blair,  C.  J.,  82,  163,  232. 

Bloomingdale,  L.  G.,  208. 

“Blue  Ledge  of  the  Hudson,”  225,  231. 
“Book,”  89. 

“Book  of  the  Artists,”  58. 

“Boston  American,”  255. 


300 


INDEX 


Boston  Art  Club,  224;  exhibitions,  171,  202, 
212,  221. 

“Boston  Common,  The,”  30. 

“Boston  Globe,”  265. 

Boston  Memorial  Exhibition  (1911),  53,  92, 
94,  161,  197,  201,  256,  263. 

Boston  Public  Library,  243. 

“Boston  Watering  Cart,  A,”  29. 

Boussod,  Valadon  &  Co.,  174. 

“Boys  Wading,”  74,  75,  259. 

“Breakwater,  The,”  106. 

“Breezing  Up,”  90. 

“Briarwood  Pipe,  The,”  51. 

“Bright  Side,  The,”  52,  53,  54,  57,  58,  85,  91, 
203,  257. 

Brimmer,  M.,  129. 

British  School,  121. 

Brooklyn  Institute  of  Arts  and  Sciences, 
243- 

“Brush  Harrow,  The,”  54. 

Bryant,  W.  C.,  96. 

“Buccaneers,  The,”  130. 

Bufford,  27,  28,  262;  lithograph  shop,  ir,  25, 
28,  29,  34. 

“Building  a  Smudge,”  231. 

Burroughs,  B.,  55,  256. 

“Busy  Bee,  The,”  81. 

Byron,  118. 

Cabot,  A.  T.,  95. 

“Cadet  Hop  at  West  Point,  A,”  32. 

Caffin,  C.  H„  54. 

“Camp  Fire,  The,”  95,  96, 165,  203,  257. 
“Campaign  Sketches,”  49. 

“Camping  Out  in  the  Adirondack  Moun¬ 
tains,”  79. 

“Cannon  Rock,”  9,  177,  178,  179,  220,  231, 
247. 

“Canoeing  in  the  Adirondacks,”  162. 
“Canoes  in  the  Rapids,”  203,  265. 

“Cape  Diamond,”  181,  203. 

“Cape  Trinity  —  Moonlight,”  230,  258. 
Carnegie  Art  Gallery,  188;  Institute,  200, 
212,  219,  229;  exhibitions,  82,  149,  161, 
173,  187,  201,  203,  231. 

“Carnival,  The,”  85,  87,  203. 

“Castaway,  The,”  see  “Gulf  Stream,  The.” 
“Cavalry  Charge,  A,”  44. 

Century  Club,  89. 

“Century  Magazine,”  182. 

“Channel  Bass,”  225,  231. 

Chapin,  Mrs.  H.  D.,  126. 

“Charge  of  the  First  Massachusetts  Regi¬ 
ment  .  .  .  near  Yorktown,  The,”  43. 
“Charge  of  the  Light  Brigade,  The,”  98. 
Charleston  Exposition  (1902),  220. 


Chase,  J.  E.,  152,  153,  240. 

Chase,  W.  M.,  35,  200,  207,  256. 

“Children  and  Sail-Boat,”  95,  264. 
“Children  Wading  at  Gloucester,”  94, 264. 
“Children’s  Christmas  Party,  A,”  37. 

“  Chinese  in  New  York,  The,”  78. 

Chisolm,  Mrs.  B.  O.,  collection,  231. 
“Christmas  Belles,”  63. 

“Christmas  Out-of-Doors,”  31. 

“Christmas  Tree,  The,”  31. 

Church,  Frederic  E.,  51,  57. 

Church,  F.  S.,  94. 

Cincinnati  Art  Museum  Association,  193; 

exhibition,  192. 

Civil  War,  3,  8,  53,  61. 

Clarke,  Sir  C.  P.,  135. 

Clarke,  Thomas  B.,  47,  53,  72,  82,  87, 95, 126, 
127,  133,  148,  163,  165,  174,  185,  187,  188, 
203, 205,  206;  collection,  101, 106, 130, 145, 
154,  184;  catalogue,  100,  101,  123,  145, 
162;  sale,  47,  53,  126,  148,  154,  156,  162, 
163,  174,  184,  187,  204,  205,  232. 

“Cloud  Shadows,”  153,  229. 

“Club  Canoe,  The,”  226. 

“Coast  in  Winter,”  154,  162,  165,  205,  232, 
258. 

“Coast  of  Maine,  The,”  see  “Maine  Coast, 
The.” 

“Coasters  at  Anchor,”  94. 

“Coffee  Call,  The,”  49. 

Coffin,  W.  A.,  81,  182,  183. 

Cole,  J.  Foxcroft,  n,  27,  28, 29, 60, 61. 
“Collector,  The,”  156,  161. 

“  Coming  Away  of  the  Gale,  The,”  106. 
“Conch  Divers,”  130. 

“Confederate  Prisoners  at  the  Front,”  see 
“Prisoners  from  the  Front.” 

Copley  Society  of  Boston,  212. 

Corcoran  Gallery  of  Art,  202,  231. 

Cortissoz,  R.,  125. 

“Cotton  Pickers,”  89. 

“Country  School,  The,”  70. 

“Country  School-Room,  A,”  91. 

“Country  Store,  A  —  Getting  Weighed,” 
66,  67. 

“Country  Store,  The,”  70. 

“Course  of  True  Love,”  81. 

“Courtin’,  The,”  98. 

Cox,  Kenyon,  134,  179,  243,  256. 

“Critic,  The,”  223. 

“Crossing  the  Pasture,”  70,  116. 

Curtis,  Mrs.  G.  K.,  17,  18. 

Curtis,  Mrs.  G.  S.,  95. 

Curtis,  Sidney  W.,  18. 

Curtiss,  F.  H.,  53,  263. 

“Cutting  a  Figure,”  66,  68. 


INDEX 


301 


“Dad ’s  Coming,”  77. 

“Dance,  The,”  31. 

“Dance  after  the  Husking,  The,”  31. 
“Dancing  at  the  Casino,”  59. 

“Dancing  at  the  Mabilie,”  59. 

“Danger,”  145. 

Darfey,  F.  O.  C.,  254. 

De  Camp,  Mrs.  J.,  241,  242. 

“Deer-Stalking  in  the  Adirondacks  in  Win¬ 
ter,”  66,  67. 

“Defiance,”  48. 

De  Vine,  B.,  240,  241. 

“Dinner,  The,”  31. 

“Dinner  Horn,  The,”  65. 

“Diver,  Nassau,”  265. 

Doll  &  Richards,  174,  185,  224,  226;  gallery, 
105,  126,  127,  136,  171,  193,  220,  exhi¬ 
bition,  203. 

“Dressing  for  the  Carnival,”  165. 
“Driftwood,”  245. 

“Drive  in  the  Central  Park,  The,”  38. 
“Driving  Home  the  Corn,”  31. 

Duveneck,  F.,  193,  200,  207. 

“Eagle  Head,  Manchester,”  64. 

“Early  Evening,”  229,  231,  243,  238. 

“Early  Morning  After  Storm  at  Sea,”  214, 
219,  224,  245. 

“Eastern  Point,”  207. 

“Eastern  Point  Light,”  94. 

“Eating  Watermelons,”  90. 

“Eight  Bells,”  137,  146,  147,  148,  150,  151, 
165,  183,  188,  189,  203,  205,  258,  267. 
“1860-1870,”  64. 

Elkins,  G.  W„  126. 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  10,  76,  238,  239. 
“Enchanted,”  242. 

“End  of  the  Portage,”  203. 

“Entering  the  First  Rapid,”  203. 

Ettlinger,  L.,  163,  231. 

Evans,  W.  T.,  87,  88, 171,  172,  201,  229;  sale, 
88,  171. 

“Evening  Post,”  New  York,  135,  202,  262. 
“Evening  Transcript,”  Boston,  212,  236. 
“Every  Saturday,”  66. 

Ewart,  R.  H.,  73. 

Fair  Oaks,  Battle  of,  44. 

“Fair  Wind,  A,”  90. 

“Fall  Games  —  The  Apple  Bee,”  32. 

“Fifth  Avenue,”  37. 

“Fifty-ninth  Street,”  37. 

“Fireworks  on  the  Night  of  the  Fourth  of 
July,”  62. 

“Fisher  Girl,  The,”  174,  231, 258. 
“Fishermen’s  Wives,”  263. 


“Fisherwomen,  English  Coast,”  263. 
“Fishing,”  265. 

“Fishing  Boats  at  Anchor,”  94. 

“Fishing  Boats,  Key  West,”  259,  261. 
“Fishing  Ground,  The,”  203,  204. 

“Fishing,  Upper  Saguenay,”  203. 

“Flight  of  Wild  Geese,”  201,  232,  246,  263. 

“  Flirting  on  the  Seashort  and  on  the  Mead¬ 
ow,”  79. 

“Flower  Garden  and  Bungalow,”  239,  260. 
“Flowers  for  the  Teacher,”  81. 

“Fly  Fishing,  Saranac  Lake,”  150,  151. 
“Fog,”  212. 

“Fog  Warning,  The,”  137,  138,  139,  163,  183, 
232,  238,  258,  263,  267. 

“Forebodings,”  100,  101,  102,  103. 
“Fountain,  The,”  98. 

Fowler,  F.,  97,  169. 

“Fox  and  Crows,”  see  “Fox-Hunt,  The.” 
“Fox  Hill,”  129. 

“Fox  Hunt,  The,”  168,  206,  207,  231,  248, 
258,  267. 

Freer,  C.  L.,  134,  229;  collection,  229,  231, 
243- 

“Fresh  Morning,  A,”  90. 

“From  Richmond,”  44. 

“Gale,  The,”  see  “Great  Gale,  A.” 
“Gathering  Berries,”  78. 

“Gathering  Evergreens,”  31. 

“Gazette  des  Beaux-Arts,”  57,  58,  223. 

“  General  Thomas  Swearing  in  the  Volunteers 
.  .  .  at  Washington,”  39. 

Gest,  J.  H.,  193. 

Gibbs,  F.  S.,  collection,  48. 

“Girl,”  77. 

“Girl  in  a  Fog,”  174. 

“Girl  with  Letter,”  264. 

“Gloucester  Boys,”  94. 

“Gloucester  Harbor,”  76. 

“Gloucester,  Massachusetts,”  94. 

Godwin,  P.,  73. 

“Going  Berrying,”  264. 

“Good  Pool,  A,”  see  “Ouananiche  —  A 
Good  Pool.” 

Gould,  C.  W.,  138,  231,  236. 

“Government  Building,”  263. 

“Grand  Review  at  Camp  Massachusetts, 

.  .  .  The,”  32. 

“Great  Fair  .  .  .  New  York,  in  Aid  of  the 
City  Poor,”  40. 

“Great  Gale,  A,”  156, 166, 203,  231. 

“Great  Russian  Ball,  The,”  46. 

Green,  C.  A.,  242. 

“Green  Dory,  The,”  93,  264. 

“Guide,”  26s. 


302 


INDEX 


“Guide,  The,”  181. 

“Guides  Shooting  Rapids,”  203. 

“Gulf  Stream,  The,”  132,  133,  134,  149,  204, 
213,  214,  215,  218,  225,  229,  231,  247,  258. 

Gunsaulus,  Dr.  F.  W.,  208. 

Guy,  Seymour  J.,  51. 

Hall,  R.  C„  154. 

“Halibut  Fishing,”  see  “ Fog  Warning,  The.” 

Hamilton,  W.  H.,  52. 

“Hark!  The  Lark,”  148,  149,  151,  152, 

231. 

Harper  &  Brothers,  34,  47,  98,  164,  243, 
244. 

“Harper’s  Weekly,”  8,  29,  30,  31,  32,  37,  38, 
39,  41,  43.  44,  45.  46,  54,  59.  60,  61,  63,  64, 
65,  70,  71,  72,  73,  76,  77,  78,  80, 96, 164. 

Harrison,  A.,  95. 

“Hauling  in  Anchor,”  192. 

“Head  Guide,  The,”  203. 

Hearn,  G.  A.,  133,  177,  178,  187,  219,  245, 
256;  collection,  174. 

“Herring  Fishing,”  138,  165,  231. 

“Herring  Net,  The,”  see  “Banks  Fisher¬ 
men.” 

“High  Cliff,  Coast  of  Maine,”  9,  114,  170, 
172,  215,  217,  229,  232. 

“High  Sea,  A,”  181,  190,  191,  221,  258. 

“Hillside,”  91,  92,  259. 

Hind,  C.  L.,  246. 

“History  of  the  Second  Army  Corps,”  44. 

“Holiday  in  Camp  —  Soldiers  Playing  Foot¬ 
ball,”  42,  54. 

“Home  from  the  War,”  46. 

“Home,  Sweet  Home,”  47,  48,  49. 

Homer,  Arthur  B.,  22,  26,  43,  109,  115,  116, 
145,  146,  227,  233,  235,  236,  250,  263. 

Homer,  Mrs.  A.  B.,  115. 

Homer,  A.  P.,  115,  251. 

Homer,  C.  L.,  115,  227. 

Homer,  Charles  S.,  21,  22,  23,  24,  26,  27,  55, 
70,  109,  115,  198,  199,  200 , 253. 

Homer,  Charles  S.,  Jr.,  22,  24,  26,  64,  109, 
no,  112,  115,  117,  145,  153,  166, 179,  211, 
242,  251,  254,  255,  256. 

Homer,  Mrs.  C.  S.,  Jr.,  115. 

Homer,  Eleazer,  22. 

Homer,  Henrietta  Maria  (Benson),  22,  23, 
109,  253- 

Homer,  James,  22. 

Homer,  Captain  John,  21. 

Homer,  Mary,  22. 

Homer,  Winslow,  birth,  21;  youth,  24;  New 
York,  34,  46,  59,  87 ;  Peninsular  Cam¬ 
paign,  41;  voyage  to  Europe,  56;  trips  to 
Adirondacks  and  New  England,  59-85 ; 


Virginia,  85;  New  England  Coast, 94;  Eng¬ 
land,  99;  Prout’s  Neck,  109,  137,  181;  Ba¬ 
hamas  and  Cuba,  129;  Canada,  179;  death, 
250. 

“Homeward  Bound,”  60. 

Hooper,  E.  W.,  126,  161;  collection,  126; 
estate,  95. 

“Hound  and  Hunter,”  163,  165,  231,  258. 
Howard,  W.  S.,  178. 

Howland,  A.  C.,  34,  35. 

Howland,  Judge  Henry,  34. 

Hoyt  collection,  sale,  191. 

“Hudson  River  at  Blue  Ledge,”  see  “Blue 
Ledge  of  the  Hudson.” 

Humphreys,  Dr.  A.  C.,  101,  149. 

Huneker,  257. 

Hunt,  W.  M.,  3,  57. 

“Hunter  with  Dog,”  see  “Return  from  the 
Hunt.” 

“Huntsman  and  Dogs,”  see  “Return  from 
the  Hunt.” 

“Husking  the  Corn  in  New  England,”  30. 
“lie  Malin,”  203. 

“Incoming  Tide,- The,”  100,  102,  103. 
“Indian  Boy,”  204. 

“Indian  Camp,”  203,  204,  265. 

“Indian  Girls,”  204. 

“In  Front  of  the  Guard-House,”  51. 

“Initials,  The,”  52. 

“Inland  Water,  Bermuda,”  221. 

Inness,  George,  3,  51,  202,  247. 

“Inside  the  Bar,”  100,  102. 

International  Society  of  Sculptors,  Painters, 
and  Gravers,  exhibition,  159. 
“International  Studio,  The,”  246. 

“In  the  Fields,”  90. 

“In  the  Garden,”  77,  81. 

“In  the  Rapids,”  225. 

“In  the  Twilight,”  104. 

Isham,  Samuel,  11,  12,  93,  256. 

“Item,”  Philadelphia,  135. 

“Jessie  Remained  Alone  at  the  Table,”  98. 
Johnson,  Eastman,  3,  51,  121,  203. 

Johnson,  J.  G.,  154,  165. 

Johnston,  J.  T.,  55;  collection,  61;  sale,  55. 
“Jurors  Listening  to  Counsel,  etc.,”  63. 
“Kissing  the  Moon,”  223,  258. 

Klackner,  C.,  150,  151,  152,  164. 

Knoedler,  R.  F.,  256;  &  Co.,  171,  215,  224; 

galleries,  225,  245. 

Kobbe,  G.,  56,  83. 

Kurtz,  C.  M.,  123. 

La  Farge,  Mrs.  B.,  126, 161, 221, 232, 263. 


INDEX 


303 


La  Farge,  John,  3,  35,  36,  51,  56,  83,  84, 185, 
200,  207,  212,  243,  244,  267. 

“Lake  Shore,”  203,  204. 

“Lake  Tourilli,”  181. 

“Landscape,”  81. 

“Last  Days  of  Harvest,  The,”  77. 

“Last  Goose  at  Yorktown,  The,”  47,  48,  49. 
Laurvik,  J.  N.,  61. 

Layton,  F.,  149;  Art  Gallery,  149,  231. 
“Lee  Shore,”  see  “On  a  Lee  Shore.” 

Lehman,  M.  H.,  87. 

“Lemon,”  89. 

“Life  Boat,  The,”  104. 

“Life  Brigade,  The,”  100,  103. 

“Life  in  Harvard  College,”  29. 

“Life  Line,  The,”  120,  121,  122,  123,  126, 
133.  137,  142,  ISO,  151,  183,  203,  20s,  258. 
“Light  on  the  Sea,  A,”  202,  231. 

Lincoln,  Mrs.  R.  C.,  201,  232,  246,  263. 
“Little  Arthur  in  Fear  of  Harming  a  Worm,” 
US- 

“Little  Charlie’s  Innocent  Amusements,” 
US- 

“Little  More  Yarn,  A,”  104. 

“Lobster  Cove,”  64. 

“London  Art  Journal,”  57,  58,  90,  93. 
“Lookout,  The  —  All’s  Well!”  181,  182, 
183,  184,  185,  201,  203,  205,  206,  207,  232, 
258,  263,  267,  270. 

“Lost  on  the  Grand  Banks,”  137,  140,  142, 
165,  183. 

Lotos  Club,  192,  220,  231;  exhibition,  201. 
Louisiana  Purchase  Exposition,  art  depart¬ 
ment,  224. 

Lowell,  J.  R.,  98,  254. 

“Lumbering  in  Winter,”  66,  67. 

Luxembourg  Museum,  59,  161,  207. 

Macbeth,  W.,  248. 

“Maine  Coast,  The,”  9,  177,  181,  185,  186, 
187,  190,  205,  206,  207,  219,  232,  258. 
“Making  Hay,”  70. 

“Manchester  Coast,”  62. 

Manson,  T.  L.,  Jr.,  162;  Mrs.,  206. 

“Man  Fishing  in  the  Adirondacks,”  225. 
“Man  with  a  Wheelbarrow,  A,”  25. 
“Manners  and  Customs  at  the  Seaside,”  64. 
Mansfield,  B.,  101,  175,  230,  231. 

Mantz,  Paul,  57. 

“March  Wind,”  165. 

“March  Winds,”  31. 

“Marine  on  the  Coast,  A,”  158. 

“Market  Boat,”  129. 

“Market  Scene,  The,”  130. 

Martin,  Homer  D.,  35,  36,  247. 

Martin,  J.  T.;  collection,  242. 


Mather,  F.  J.  Jr.,  262. 

Matthews,  N.  C.,  88. 

McClellan,  General,  40,  42,  53. 

McKim,  C.  F.,  243. 

McMillin,  E.,  171,  220,  224. 

McSpadden,  J.  W.,  26. 

Mechlin,  Miss  Leila,  13. 

“Men  in  Canoe,”  265. 

“Mending  the  Nets,”  150,  151,  161. 

Merrill,  Mrs.,  75. 

Merrill,  M.,  127. 

“Merry  Christmas  and  A  Happy  New  Year, 
A,”  37- 

Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  133,  134,  177, 

178,  229,  231,  245,  247,  256,  259,  260; 
collection,  132,  179;  exhibition,  55. 

“Milking  Time,”  81. 

“Mill,  The,”  70. 

“Miller’s  Daughter,  The,”  98. 

Millet,  J.  F.,  12,  13,  58,  118. 

“Moonlight,”  see  “Summer  Night,  A.” 
“Moonlight,  Wood  Island  Light,”  170,  173, 

179,  181,  205,  258. 

Moore,  F.  P.,  171,  247. 

Morgan,  Randal,  245. 

“Morning,”  90. 

“Morning  Bell,  The,”  77. 

“Morning  Walk,  The,  etc.,”  62. 

“Mt.  Adams,”  64. 

“Mount  Washington,”  263. 

“Mouth  of  the  Tyne,”  265. 

Munsell,  A.  H.,  266. 

Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston,  140,  184,  204, 
205,  256,  267;  collection,  233, 263. 

“Musical  Amateurs,”  61. 

National  Academy  of  Design,  36,  48,  49,  51, 
52,  56,  61,  62,  64,  71,  77,  89,  247,  256;  ex¬ 
hibitions,  37,  52,  54,  70,  81,  92,  94,  95, 106, 
120,  134,  138,  142. 

National  Gallery  of  Art,  Washington,  87, 
172,  229,  232. 

“Native  Cabin,”  129. 

“Natural  Bridge,  Nassau,”  259,  260. 

“Near  the  Queen’s  Staircase,”  129. 

“Negress  with  Basket  of  Fruit,”  129. 

“New  England  Country  School,  A,”  71,  72, 
73.  9i- 

“New  England  Factory  Life  —  ‘Bell 
Time,  ’  ”  62. 

“New  Year,  The  —  1869,”  63. 

“New  York  Charities,”  78. 

“New  York  Mail  and  Express,”  82,  123. 

New  York  Memorial  Exhibition  (1911),  74, 
91,  166,  225,  256,  263,  265;  catalogue,  154. 
“News  for  the  Fleet,”  43. 


INDEX 


304 

“News  for  the  Stall,”  43. 

“News  from  the  War,”  43. 

“Newspaper  Train,  The,”  43. 

“Niagara,”  57. 

Nicoli,  J.  C.,  88,  224. 

“Noon,”  129. 

“Noon  Recess,  The,”  72. 

“Nooning,  The,”  73. 

Norcross,  G.  H.,  140. 

Norcross,  Miss,  140. 

Norcross,  O.,  fund,  140. 

North  Woods  Club,  N.  Y.,  226. 
“Northeaster,  The,”  177,  179,  201,  219,  245, 
246. 

“November,”  91. 

O’Brien,  M.,  &  Son,  148, 162,  210, 213, 214. 
“Old  Mountain  Philips,”  83. 

“On  a  Lee  Shore,”  9, 149,  177,  185,  190,  208, 
209,  231,  258,  263. 

“On  the  Banks  —  Hard-a-Port  —  Fog,” 
208. 

“On  the  Beach  —  Two  are  Company,  etc.,” 
7i- 

“On  the  Beach  at  Long  Branch  —  The 
Children’s  Hour,”  78. 

“On  the  Bluff  at  Long  Branch,  etc.,”  65. 

“On  the  Cliffs,”  161,  162. 

“On  the  Fence,”  92. 

“On  the  Hill,”  92. 

“One  Boat  Missing,”  106. 

“Origin  of  Christmas,  The,”  37. 

Osgood,  J.  R.  &  Co.,  66,  98. 

“Ouananiche  —  A  Good  Pool,”  225,  231. 
“Ouananiche,  Lake  St.  John,”  203. 
“Ouananiche  Fishing,”  203. 

“Our  Next  President,”  62. 

“Our  Special  Artist,”  44. 

“Our  Thanksgiving,”  31. 

“Our  Watering-Places — Horse -Racing  at 
Saratoga,”  54. 

“Our  Watering-Places  —  The  Empty  Sleeve 
at  Newport,”  54. 

“Over  the  Hills,”  90. 

Page,  William,  34. 

Palfrey,  General  Francis  W.,  44,  94. 

“Pall  Mall  Gazette,”  159. 

“Palm  Tree,  Nassau,”  259,  260. 
Pan-American  Exposition,  212. 

Paris  International  Exhibitions,  55,  57,  58, 
72,  91,  206. 

“Pay  Day  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,”  42, 
46. 

Pearce,  Mrs.  W.  H.  S.,  63,  263. 

Peninsular  campaign,  40, 41,  42, 43, 46,48, 49. 


Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  72, 
171,  192,  219,  229,  232;  collection,  170, 
231;  exhibitions,  179,  191,  208,  230,  245. 
“Perils  of  the  Sea,  The,”  100,  101,  102,  150, 
259- 

Philadelphia  Watercolor  Club,  232. 
Philadelphia  Centennial  Exposition  (1876), 
74,  81. 

Philpott,  A.  J.,  265. 

“Picardie,”  61. 

“Pike,”  231. 

“Pioneer,  The,”  221,  259,  261. 

“Pitching  Quoits,”  see  “Zouaves  Pitching 
Quoits.” 

“Pirate  Boat,  The,”  226. 

Pomroy,  H.  K.,  95. 

“Port  of  Nassau,”  129. 

“Portage,  The,”  265. 

Potter,  Mrs.  J.  B.,  126. 

“Prisoners  from  the  Front,”  54,  55,  56,  57, 
58,  61,  82,  90,  258,  262. 

“Prout’s  Neck,  Maine,”  233. 

Prout’s  Neck  Improvement  Society,  no. 
“Province  of  Quebec,  The,”  181. 

“Rab  and  the  Girls,”  90. 

“Raid  on  a  Sand-Swallow  Colony  —  ‘How 
Many  Eggs?  ’  ”  78. 

Rainsford,  Rev.  W.  S.,  145. 

“Rainy  Day  in  Camp,”  70. 

“Rapids  are  Near,  The,”  203. 

“Rapids  below  Grand  Discharge,”  203. 
Rathbun,  R.,  87. 

“Rations,”  47,  53,  203. 

“Rattlesnake,”  89. 

“Rebels  Outside  their  Works  at  Yorktown,” 
43- 

Reichard,  G.,  188,  189;  &  Co.,  165;  gallery, 
156. 

“Return  from  the  Hunt,  The,”  161, 165,  221, 
231,  232,  263. 

“Return  up  the  River,  The,”  203. 

Rhode  Island  School  of  Design,  208, 231,  263. 
“Right  and  Left,”  244,  258. 

“Road  in  Nassau,  The,”  265. 

Robinson,  E.,  256. 

Robinson,  T.,  57. 

Rogers,  Mrs.  W.  IT,  191. 

“Rolling  Sea,  A,”  104. 

Rondel,  Frederic,  36. 

“Rowing  Homeward,”  154. 

Royal  Academy,  121. 

“Sail-Boat,”  64. 

“Sailing  Dories,”  264. 

“Sailors  Take  Warning,”  165. 


INDEX 


305 


Saint  Botolph  Club,  exhibitions,  142,  180. 
“St.  John’s  Gate,”  204. 

Saint-Gaudens,  A.,  4,  243,  244. 

“St.  Valentine’s  Day  —  The  Old  Story  in 
All  Lands,”  61. 

“Salem  Harbor,”  64. 

Sanford,  H.,  58. 

“Santa  Claus  and  His  Presents,”  31. 
Sargent,  J.  S.,  206,  207. 

“Saved,”  see  “Undertow.” 

“Sawkill  River,  Pa.,”  64. 

Sayles,  H.,  92. 

Schaus,  H.,  148. 

Schenck,  A.,  57. 

Schieren,  C.  A.,  243. 

“School  Time,”  77. 

“Schooners  at  Anchor,”  94. 

“Scotch  Mist,”  126. 

“Sea  Fans,”  129. 

“Sea  on  the  Bar,”  145. 

“Searchlight,  Harbor  Entrance,  Santiago  de 
Cuba,”  132,  231. 

“Sea-Side  Sketches  —  A  Clam  Bake,”  73. 
“Seesaw,  Gloucester,  Massachusetts,”  79. 
“Shall  I  Tell  Your  Fortune  ?  ”  90. 

“Shark  Fishing,  Nassau  Bar,”  131. 
“Sharks,”  225. 

“Shell  in  the  Rebel  Trenches,  A,”  45. 
“Shepherdess,”  91,  259. 

“Shepherdess  of  Houghton  Farm,  The,”  92, 
94. 

Sherwood,  J.  H.,  73,  91. 

“Ship-Building,  Gloucester  Harbor,”  76. 
“Ship’s  Boat,  The,”  100,  104,  126. 

“Shooting  the  Rapids,”  225,  258,  265. 

“Shore  and  Surf,  Nassau,”  259, 261. 

Shurtleff,  R.  M.,  35,  46,  83,  95,  162. 

“Signal  of  Distress,  The,”  151,  152,  156, 158, 
IS9»  183- 

“Skating  at  Boston,”  31. 

“Skating  in  the  Central  Park,”  37. 

“  Skating  on  the  Ladies’  Skating  Pond  in  the 
Central  Park,”  37. 

“Skating  Season,  The,  1862,”  40. 

“Sketch  from  Nature,”  64. 

“Sketch  in  Florida,”  146. 

“Sketch  in  Key  West,”  146. 

“  Sleighing  Season,  The  —  The  Upset,”  37. 
“Sloop,  Bermuda,”  259,  261. 

Smith,  C.  S.,  90. 

Smith,  F.  H.,  89. 

Smithers,  F.  S.,  171. 

“Snake  in  the  Grass,”  224. 

“Snap  the  Whip,”  26,  73, 74,  81, 91, 257. 
“Snow  Slide  in  the  City,  A,”  37. 

“Song  Birds,  Nassau,”  129. 


“  Songs  from  the  Writings  of  Tennyson,”  97. 
“Songs  of  the  War,”  39. 

“Spanish  Club,”  265. 

“Spanish  Flag,  The,”  233. 

“Sparrow  Hall,  Newcastle-on-Tyne,”  229. 
“Sponge  Fisherman,  Nassau,”  128. 

Spoor,  J.  A.,  142. 

“Spring,”  243. 

“Spring  Blossoms,”  65. 

“Spring  Farm  Work  —  Grafting,”  65. 
“Spring  in  the  City,”  30. 

“Station-House  Lodgers,”  77. 

Stimson,  L.  A.,  223. 

“Storm-Beaten,”  170,  171,  179,  189,  201, 
220,  224. 

“Storm  on  the  English  Coast,”  265. 
Stotesbury,  E.  T.,  148. 

Strachan,  E.,  90. 

Strauss,  N.,  242. 

“Street  in  Santiago  de  Cuba,”  265. 

“Studio,  The,”  61,  123,  203. 

“Study,  A,”  61. 

Sturgis,  R.,  130. 

“Summer,”  95. 

“Summer  Night,  A,”  9,  156,  157,  159,  160, 
173,  181,  206,  207. 

“Summit  of  Mount  Washington,  The,”  62. 
“Sun,  The,”  New  York,  135,  257. 

“Sunday  Morning,”  77,  95. 

“Sunday  Morning  in  Virginia,”  85, 88, 91. 
“Sundown,”  92,  94. 

“Sunlight  on  the  Coast,”  154, 155, 165, 258. 
“Sunset,”  94. 

“Sunset,  Lake  St.  John,”  203. 

“Sunset,  Saco  Bay,  The  Coming  Storm,” 
181,  191,  231,  258. 

“Sunset  and  Moonrise,”  see  “Kissing  the 
Moon.” 

“Surgeon  at  Work,  The,”  44. 

Swift,  S.,  82,  123. 

“Taking  on  Wet  Provisions,”  259,  261. 
“Tatler,”  London,  144. 

“Tears,  Idle  Tears,”  98. 

Temple,  J.  E.,  220;  fund,  170. 

“Tenth  Commandment,  The,”  65. 
“Thanksgiving  Day,  i860,”  38. 
“Thanksgiving  Day  in  the  Army,”  54. 
“Thanksgiving  in  Camp,”  42,  45. 

Thomas,  Washington  B.,  The,  210. 

“Three  Fishermen  and  Girl,”  265. 

“Three  Men  in  a  Canoe,”  265. 

“Tornado,  Bahamas,”  259,  260. 

Tourilli  Club,  179,  181. 

“Tribune,”  New  York,  135. 

“Trip  to  Chicoutimi,  The,”  203. 


3°6 


INDEX 


“Trout  and  Float,”  231. 

“Trout  Fishing,”  204. 

Trumble,  A.,  156,  158,  159,  161. 

“Trysting  Place,  The,”  81. 

Tuckerman,  H.  T.,  58. 

Turner,  Ross,  135,  193. 

“Two  Guides,  The,”  82,  83, 90, 162, 165,  203, 
232. 

“Tynemouth,”  100,  102,  103. 

“Uncle  Ned  at  Home,”  81. 

“Under  a  Palm  Tree,”  130. 

“Under  the  Falls,  Grand  Discharge,”  203, 
204. 

“  Under  the  Falls,  Catskill  Mountains,”  71 . 
“Undertow,”  121,  137,  142,  143,  144,  150, 
183,  231,  248,  258. 

“Union  Cavalry  and  Artillery '  Starting  in 
Pursuit  of  the  Rebels,  The,”  43. 

Union  League  Club,  New  York,  16,  210,  218; 

exhibitions,  132,  202. 

“Unruly  Calf,  The,”  243. 

Untermeyer,  S.,  156. 

“Upland  Cotton,”  92,  93,  94. 

Valentine,  Lawson,  52. 

Valentine,  Mrs.  L.,  91,  265;  collection,  74,  78. 
Van  Rensselaer,  Mrs.  S.,  12, 124, 125, 143. 
Vedder,  Elihu,  51. 

Velasquez,  5. 

“View  from  Prospect  Hill,  Bermuda,”  231. 
“Visit  from  the  Old  Mistress,  The,”  85,  86, 
87,  91.  95,  172,  203,  256. 

“Voice  from  the  Cliffs,  A,”  100,  102,  148, 
149,  259,  267. 

“Volante,”  233. 

“Waiting  for  a  Bite,”  79. 

“Walk  Along  the  Cliff,  A,”  104. 

“Wall,  A,  Nassau,”  259,  260. 

“War  for  the  Union,  The,  1862  —  A  Bayonet 
Charge,”  44. 

“War,  The  —  Making  Havelocks  for  the 
Volunteers,”  39. 

Warner,  C.  D.,  83. 

Warner,  Mrs.  R.  S.,  126. 

“Watching  Sheep,”  92. 


“Watching  the  Breakers,”  see  “High  Sea, 
A.” 

“Watching  the  Tempest,”  100, 101, 103,  259. 
“Watch-Tower,  The,”  77. 

“Watermalon  Boys,  The,”  90. 

“Ways  and  Means,”  31. 

“Weather-Beaten,”  see  “Storm-Beaten.” 
Weir,  John  F.,  35,  36,  81. 

“West  Wind,  The,”  9,  155,  156,  203,  205, 
258. 

White,  Rev.  S.,  253. 

White,  W.  A.,  53. 

“White  Mountain  Wagon,”  64. 

“White  Mountains,  The,”  63,  64. 

“Wicked  Island,”  203. 

Wight,  Moses,  29. 

“Wild  Ducks,”  265. 

“Winding  the  Clock,”  94. 

“Winter,”  see  “Fox  Hunt,  The.” 

“Winter  —  A  Skating  Scene,”  61. 

“Winter  at  Sea  —  Taking  in  Sail,”  62. 
“Winter  Morning,  A  —  Shovelling  Out,”  66. 
“Winter  Quarters  in  Camp  —  The  Inside  of 
a  Hut,”  45. 

Wolfe,  Catherine  L.,  126. 

“Wolfe’s  Cove,”  204. 

Woodward,  Dr.  G.,  232. 

Worcester  Art  Museum;  exhibition,  1910, 
201,  246. 

“World’s  Columbian  Exposition  —  The 
Fountain  at  Night,”  258. 

World’s  Fair,  Chicago,  95,  165;  exhibition, 
138. 

“Wounded,”  43. 

“Wreck,  The,”  181,  187,  188,  189,  231,  267. 
“Wreck  of  the  Atlantic,  The  —  Cast  up  by 
the  Sea,”  72. 

“Wreck  of  the  Iron  Crown,  The,”  104. 
“Wreck  off  the  English  Coast,”  265. 

Wyant,  A.  II.,  51. 

Wyeth,  Ned,  26. 

“Yacht  Hope,  The,”  94. 

“Young  Ducks,”  203. 

“Youth  of  C.  S.  H.,  The,”  25. 

1  “Zouaves  Pitching  Quoits,”  52,  53,  263. 


(2TI)C  Ciilier?ibe  pvcpj? 

CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U  .  S  .  A 


